Bureau Agent Potter
by NHunter
Summary: Due to an accident, Harry comes in contact with a small green gem and it forever changes his life. Probably for the better... Now a strong mage, he will walk his life side by side with the newest generation of Aces of TSAB. This is the story of his (mis)adventures. Rated M for occasional cynical realism and other not-for-everyone stuff. *ON HIATUS* due to the lack of ideas
1. The once lost gem

**Title**: Bureau Agent Potter  
**Author**: NHunter aka N.H. aka 夜狩猟家 aka 灰色天使  
**Genre**: General, Adventure, some hints of Romance later on  
**Rating**: M = NC-17  
**Warnings**: AU; Crossover; Some violence; Possible lemons later on; Crazy author...

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**_Disclaimer_**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

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**AN**: I will be adjusting the ranks of some TSAB characters within this story to make the relation between the rank and the function within the Bureau closer to what we're are used to. Thus, some characters might get demoted by a rank or two. That, however, should not have much impact on the Nanoha-verse plots, when I get there.

Also, given that I start around a year and a half before A's time, it will be a few chapters before canon characters of Nanoha will start showing up. Bear with me here...

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_**Special thanks**_ to **Lupine Horror** for his invaluable help in getting this story rolling.

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**Bureau Agent Potter  
chapter I: The once lost gem**

Harry sighed. Ever since Ron's unfortunate attempt to give him a call a few days ago, his summer went from tolerably-bad to awful. Uncle Vernon had been raging over being disturbed by freaks for an hour that day, and the green-eyed almost-teen wizard ended up with a few new bruises thanks to that. At least Hedwig had avoided the walrus-man's wrath by virtue of not being there when it had happened...

After that day, the Dursleys decided that they wanted him out of their sight – and their house – for as much as possible. Thus, as soon as he was done with the daily portion of his chores, Harry was kicked out of the house. And he could do anything he wanted in the neighborhood for as long as he was back in time to cook them a dinner. This would have been almost like dreams come true for the dark-haired wizard if not for the fact that his cousin Dudley and his gang decided that their old game of 'Harry hunting' was still very much fun to play. In other words, as soon as the green-eyed Potter found himself on the streets of Little Whinging, he needed to hide or run for his life if he didn't want to end up as a punching bag for those four.

Unfortunately, it looked like lady Luck wasn't on his side today... The gang had found him when he was passing through the small local park and now they were trying to corner him in some blind alley and beat him up. And, no matter how much trouble Harry had believing it, those four had somehow managed to gain a few IQ points since the primary school. Now they were using something that could actually count as pack-hunt tactics.

And even though the green-eyed Potter himself was a little bit faster than his pursuers, today he found himself unable to lose them no matter what he tried. Even worse, the Dudley's gang was slowly cutting off possible routes to the more populated parts of the neighborhood he could follow. In the end, the dark-haired wizard found himself chased into a construction site on the edge of Little Whinging. And with no workers around – it was Saturday – there was no one who could prevent his cousin and the grunts that followed him around from being as violent with him as they wanted to.

Of course, Harry wasn't about to give up and accept the beating easily, but... Before long, a rock Piers threw managed to connect with the back of his head, sending him into the a hill of excavated dirt. And as the young Potter fell, his baggy T-shirt brushed a layer of dust off a small greenish gem than somehow ended in the said hill. Not that anyone noticed this. Yet.

Still believing that he might be able to escape from his pursuers, the green-eyed not-yet-teen tried to push himself back onto his feet. His was unsuccessful, though, as Dudley stepped onto his back, instantly pinning him back to the ground with his weight.

"We win, freak,.." The youngest Dursley spoke. "And, now, we will beat you up good!" With those words he pushed the dark-haired wizard-boy further into the dirt. And in doing so he also made the yet-to-be-noticed by anyone gem come in contact with the bare skin on the young wizard's chest.

Harry had but a briefest of the moments to wonder what was pushing against his skin before his world exploded in pain, as if someone had suddenly stuck a white-hot rod of barbed iron right through him. For Merlin knows how long the young Potter screamed and screamed his lungs out as scorching pain kept flooding his senses. Then, as another epicenter of pain exploded in his forehead, the blissful void of unconsciousness finally claimed him...

* * *

As his mind was elsewhere, thanks to being tortured by _something_, Harry was completely unaware of the light-show that surrounded him. A moment after the gem came in contact with his skin, there was an explosion of bluish energy that threw Dudley and the rest of his friends away from him as if they weighted nothing. And as this 'explosion' was followed by unnaturally-colored lightnings striking in random directions from Harry's body, the gang decided to do a sensible thing and took flight.

The light-show, though, absolutely didn't care about them being there or not: more and more lightnings kept popping up while the freakish bluish aura surrounded the not-yet-teen wizard's body. Then, after maybe half a minute, the lightnings started turning darker as black smoke began seeping out of the scar on the young Potter's forehead.

As more and more of this unnatural smoke was forced out of the scar, it took a shape of something that looked roughly like a human head and tried to force its way back into the young wizard's body. But another explosion of bluish energy that happened then blew the miasmic entity away, where it lost all of its connections with its previous host and quickly disappeared in a horrible and inhuman soul-wrenching scream.

Even with the malicious spirit exorcised from the young Potter's body, the light-show surrounding his body didn't cease immediately. The bluish aura was still surrounding him and discharging lightnings in random directions every now and then. Though, by now, those began visibly losing their power, as if it was running out of juice. And, indeed, just a few minutes later the unnatural activity surrounding the unconscious wizard-boy stopped...

**~/ *** \~**

The universe was an interesting place, there was no denying it. At its core there was the so-called _Dimensional Space_, around which layers of reality were wrapped a lot like onion peels, with each such layer containing myriads of worlds that could support intelligent life. And since these layers appeared to be independent of each other, the chances were, two separate world could exist in what would otherwise be the same point in space.

Even more curious was the fact, first noted by a famous archeologist from Scrya clan, that such overlapping worlds tended to share many similarities. Geography, climate, species which lived on them, even history and culture could be very similar. Non-administered worlds 97 and 138 were a pair of such almost identical overlapping worlds: the only noticeable difference between them was the technological advancement with the former being roughly two decades ahead.

The Time-Space Administration Bureau, of course, was keeping an eye on both these worlds. Actually, performing a routine scans of non-administered world 138 was the last task the investigative spaceship "Leto" of TSAB had to complete before this round of patrolling the space was over and it could head back to its base.

And since the locals were neither space-faring, nor were they using any magitek, the main purposes of these scans were confirming the state of their advancement and locating any Relics or Lost Logia that might have been smuggled there by less than law-abiding elements.

At first, it looked like the scan won't show anything that wasn't seen in the twenty years this world had been under the observation. But then, suddenly, the ship's sensors picked up a powerful magical signature that signature quite very similar to the ones created by the Lost Logia when they released the discharges of their power.

"Warrant officer Aoba, report the situation!" The captain of the spaceship ordered as soon as the information about the detection of Lost Logia made it to the main screens.

"Aye, captain!" The said warrant officer replied. "It appears that we've detected a class four neutrally-aligned Lost Logia. Unfortunately, it is located on the side of the planet we can't see from here, so the readings aren't as accurate and I can't give you its precise location." A new image appeared on the main screen, showing a circle of hundred miles in radius overlaying the southern-most part of what the locals called the island of Great Britain.

"And what is its status?" The captain of investigative spaceship "Leto" asked then.

"The activation of presumed Lost Logia happened at 19:34 by inboard time." Warrant officer Aoba replied. "Currently its reading are decreasing. If the trend continues, we will lose its signal completely in two minutes." And, much like it was predicted, a little more than two minutes later the sensors of "Leto" could no longer pick up any traces of activity coming from the Lost Logia. Not sure what to do in this situation, the captain decided that he could consult his superiors for the best course of action.

The consultations were quite long, but in the end it was agreed that investigative spaceship "Leto" was to stay on the non-administered world 138's orbit until it located and collected the Lost Logia they had detected. The crew, of course, would be paid the overtime for their troubles.

**~/ *** \~**

Harry slowly drifted back to consciousness. His chest still hurt, though now it was a manageable pain, and he had a head-splitting headache along with something like a magical tar covering half of the right side of his face. There also was a bump on the back of his head where the rock Piers had thrown hit him, and his back was aching thanks to the stomp performed by Dudley... All in all, Harry felt like shit and the facts that he was both late for cooking Dursleys the dinner and that his entire front was covered in dirt weren't helping him any. But since he had no other option but to return back to Number Four and face whatever shitstorm the today's events ended up conjuring...

Indeed, the Dursleys – especially aunt Petunia – were far from happy with him. They ranted for well over an hour how he was an insolent, ungrateful little freeloader who was sucking money out of good hardworking people and gave nothing back. Eventually, though, the Dursley ran out of stuff to chastise his for and let him return to his room. Without dinner tonight and any meals tomorrow, of course. And with a strict warning not to dirty anything in their house if he didn't want to spend the next week without a crumb of bread to eat as well.

And while the threat of being left without food wasn't bothering him too much – he had quite a loot of edible things stashed in his room, after all – Harry decided that he indeed should drop by into the bathroom to finally wash the dirt off himself and change into clean(er) clothes. That, and he wanted to inspect what the hell had happened to his chest properly...

While he had already seen some of it, looking that much downwards was troublesome and, well, didn't provide him with the proper image. Still, the young Potter already knew that he now had a greenish diamond-shaped gem two thumb nails in width and double that in height stuck in his chest somewhere on the level of second or third ribs. But now, standing in front of a proper mirror, he could see that the gem was not just stuck in his chest – it looked more like it had partially merged into him as well. Merged as in it had taken roots into his body! And judging by the fact that the skin around this gem-thing was angry-red and partially even charred, such a merge wasn't exactly a natural thing...

But since it did look like he could do anything about this, Harry decided that he should worry about it only if the damn thing would cause him problems. He will ask madam Pomfrey about it when he got back to Hogwarts... Speaking of which, he still needed to finish his summer homework...

**~/ *** \~**

It was a couple of days since that incident, and aside from nagging pain in his chest that was still there, the newest addition to his body wasn't bothering Harry all that much. Especially since there were much more troublesome things he needed to deal with. Namely, aunt Marge and her loathsome bulldog Ripper were coming, and they were going to be staying at Number Four for the whole damn week!

Saying that Harry and his not-really-aunt Marge not got along was like saying that inferno was a little hot. And as much as the young Potter would have like to stay out of the woman's way for the whole duration of her visit, it was impossible. After all, he was the one who was going to be doing the majority of cooking. As well as all of the cleaning and many other chores... And, even worse, since she had absolutely no idea that he was a wizard attending Hogwarts, uncle Vernon had told his sister that he attended 'St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys', and forced the green-eyed now-teen into supporting that story as well.

Needless to say that despite Harry's best attempts to stay out of the woman's way and be as invisible as he could without his cloak, it only took a few hours since her arrival to Number Four before an inevitable happened. Aunt Marge began openly insulting his parents – with both Vernon and even Petunia agreeing with her – and the young Potter's already strained thanks to the aches he still had in his chest patience ran out. A shouting match of epic proportions ensued.

In the end, Vernon ended up beating his dark-haired nephew into a bloody mess to shut him up, and threw him and all of his things he could find out of the house. Probably hoping that the escaped criminal, Sirius Black, would find and kill him before Albus Dumbledore could use his freakishness to bring Harry back into their lives.

* * *

Once the green-eyed boy-wizard had somewhat recovered, he dragged himself as far away from the Number Four as he could, running out of strength about four blocks away, in Magnolia Crescent. And as he rested against a low wall, he tried to think about what he should do next.

He was neck deep in the problem, after all. Not only he was left without a roof over his head when a highly-dangerous criminal was at large, but he also was seemingly without any means of getting to Charing Cross Road in London, where the entrance into the Diagon Alley was located. After all, it was not like some cab driver would accept magical gold as a payment for his service. And even if he did, Harry was sure that the Ministry for Magic would see that as a deliberate breach in the Statue of Secrecy and punish him severely for it. And he would be breaching the very same Statue of Secrecy if he tried to fly his broomstick...

Trying to think of something, the young Potter tried to remember, whether there was any magical equivalent of taxi. But, alas, he couldn't recall anything about it. In the end, not wishing to spend a night alfresco, Harry decided that maybe he should actually break the magical world's law and fly his broom to London. Hopefully, they will forgive him for not wanting to become the next victim of a serial killer that had escaped from a prison.

Alas, even if he could fly his broom, it looked like he would have to abandon his other things: they were just too big and cumbersome for taking them along to be feasible. And Harry didn't want to make his situation even worse by using magic in the open... But it looked like he had no other option. So with a heavy sigh the green-eyed teen reached for his wand. Standing up, he raised his wand, pointing it at his trunk and... There was a loud bang as a strange triple-decker bus painted in purple appeared out of thing air and almost ran him over. The bus's door opened and a conductor in a purple uniform leaped out of it as he began to speak loudly to the night.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this eve-..." The conductor continued his speech as Harry stared at the bus somewhat dumbly, not really believing that he now could ride to London.

"C-Can you really go anywhere?" The young Potter asked carefully.

"Yep!" The conductor whose-name-was-Stan confirmed. "Anywhere as long as it is on this island." Well, it looked like Luck wasn't totally against him today, Harry though.

"How much would it be to get to London?" He asked then.

"Eleven Sickles." Said Stan. "But for fourteen you get 'ot chocolate, and for fifteen you get an 'ot water bottle an' a toofbrush in the color of your choice!" Quickly pulling a bag of coins out of his trunk, Harry got eleven silver coins out of it and handed them to the conductor. Then he dragged all of his belongings inboard and took a seat on the nearest empty ...bed? Yes, for whatever reason, there were no seats on this bus; instead, half a dozen brass bedsteads stood beside the curtained windows. "Take 'er away, Ern," Said Stan, sitting down in the armchair next to bus's driver.

There was another tremendous BANG, and the next moment Harry found himself flat on his bed, thrown backward by the speed of the Knight Bus. Pulling himself up, Harry stared out of the window and saw that they were now bowling along a completely different street.

There were three stops in not even remotely-close locations all over the England, before the purple monster of a magical bus finally arrived to London. And as soon as the it stopped, the young Potter did his best to vacate it, lest he had to suffer through another roller-coaster of a ride on it – the man behind the wheel apparently had absolutely no idea what the traffic regulations were.

Having watched the triple-decker bus disappear into the night with yet another loud BANG, Harry picked his things up and headed into the 'Leaky Caldron' pub, hoping that there will be a room for him to rent there. But as soon as he stepped into the pub that thought was forgotten as he almost ran into a portly little man in a long pinstriped cloak, who was accompanied by a couple of aurors. Due to how surprised by this Harry was, it took him a couple of seconds to recognize that man as Cornelius Fudge, the current Minister for Magic.

**~/ *** \~**

It has been ten days since the investigative spaceship "Leto" was ordered to remain on the orbit of the non-administered world 138 and search for the Lost Logia they had detected there. Alas, the artifact was completely silent ever since then, to the point where some thought that it wasn't even on the planet anymore, despite the fact that it couldn't have left it without them noticing it.

And since the Lost Logia wasn't showing any activity ever since that brief surge of magical power ten days ago, they had to manually search for it by deploying the mages onto the planet's surface. Alas, the only thing they managed to discover was the site where that initial energy emission had happened. Which was not helping them much if any.

But since they had their order to find it, there weren't returning home until the Lost Logia was safely secure inboard of their spaceship. The crew just had to hope that something that would give them a hint where the artifact was would happen soon...


	2. The end of the old life

The second chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**karthik9**, **edboy4926**, **Gracealma**, **Ranmaleopard**, **MMC**, **lordamnesia**, **thunder18**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**ultima-owner**, while I will not even try denying that this Logia was heavily inspired by the Jewel Seeds, it's not one of them. It's a bit different from them too, though more about it will surface during the later chapters. It wasn't trying to protect Harry from anything - it is not that intelligent - but it still did just that regardless.  
**serialkeller**, he just might indeed keep the parseltongue, though so far I can't see it having any real impact on the plot. After all, there aren't any evil snake-people running around the administered worlds, are there? Though... following the certain trend... when Harry grows up a little, the ability might get an alternative use. You know what I'm talking about. ;) Anyhow, though, at this point, whether he keeps parseltongue or not, it would not change anything in the short run.

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**_Disclaimer_**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

_**Special thanks**_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter  
chapter II: The end of the old life**

As it turned out, the already-infamous escaped convict Sirius Black was actually a wizard. Even worse, he actually used to be the right hand man and one of the most dangerous lieutenants of the Dark Lord Voldemort. And, it was quite likely that the young Potter was at the top of the man's to-kill list, thanks to what had happened on Halloween night a little less than eleven years ago.

Of course, the Minister for Magic claimed that the aurors were doing their best to recapture Black and will succeed at any moment now. But he was saying that so unsurely that Harry had troubles believing that Fudge was actually telling the truth and not just trying to prevent the unrest among his electorate. Anyhow, the green-eyed teen-wizard was too tired at the moment – no thanks to the very eventful day he had lived through today – to really care about mass murders on the loose. All he wanted right now was a soft bed. And Tom the bartender could provide that for him.

Even come next morning, the dark-haired wizard found more pressing issues to worry about. Namely, his magical wand. Now that he wasn't running just on adrenaline anymore, it finally caught up with him that yesterday his wand felt entirely different from what he was used to. Hell, he could swear that he was holding an ordinary piece of wood and not a wand! But since the minors were forbidden from practicing magic while not at Hogwarts, Harry couldn't really cast any spells to try and figure out what was going on that way.

* * *

There were other ways, though. And since the first clue that something had happened was his wand, the young Potter decided that he should pay a visit to the old wand-maker Ollivander. To do that, though, he needed to actually enter the Diagon Alley first. Thankfully, it looked like he still could open the passage into the alley even if _something_ really was wrong with _him_.

The alley was as busy and crowded as Harry remembered it to be on his visits there in the previous years. And Ollivander's wand shop too haven't changed even one bit: it was still the very same narrow and shabby building with peeling gold letters over the door and a solitary wand lying on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.

Feeling a little bit apprehensive about what might happen inside, the dark-haired youth paused just in front of the shop's door. Hopefully, the old wand-maker won't be too angry with him... Shaking his head, Harry took a deep breath and stepped into the shop. Not really surprisingly, there was no one inside, even Mr. Ollivander himself was nowhere no be seen. Though, the green-eyed teen was sure that he would reveal himself before long, just like it had happened two years ago when he went there on his first shopping in the magical world... Still not seeing the shop's owner anywhere even after maybe half a minute, Harry walked up to the counter and rang the bell.

"Sorry, sorry... I'm coming." He then heard from the depths of the shop, and a few moments later Mr. Ollivander appeared from behind the shelves full of wands. "Oh, Mr. Harry Potter, eleven inches, holly and a phoenix feather. Your wand is in a good order, I hope?" Swallowing nervously, the green-eyed teen replied:

"I'm not sure. When I drew it yesterday to summon the Knight Bus, it felt quite unlike it did in the past... Like it wasn't really a wand anymore... And it feels just like that today too." He tried to explain the situation. The old wand-maker furrowed his brows.

"Can I have a look at it?" Nodding, Harry drew his wand from his pocket and handed it over to its creator. Mr. Ollivander eyed his creation for a few long moments; then he ran his long bony fingers along the wood, looking for any imperfections. "Your wand appears to be in good, working condition, Mr. Potter." He said finally. And as if to prove that, he pointed the wand towards the ceiling. "**Avis!**" With a sound not unlike a gunshot, a small flock of canaries appeared. With another wave of the wand, the shop's master dispelled the conjured birds. Then he handed the wand back to Harry. "Are you sure you still feel no proper connection with your wand, Mr. Potter?" He asked then.

"No, not really." The dark-haired youth replied – even after Mr. Ollivander had proved that his wand was fine, it still felt like an ordinary piece of wood to him.

"Hm..." The old wand-maker breathed out. "Can you, maybe, try casting some spell, Mr. Potter? It might help me understand what is wrong."

"Won't I get into a trouble with the Ministry?" Harry asked back, remembering that if he was caught casting magic outside of Hogwarts, he might end up getting expelled... Mr. Ollivander shook his head.

"No, the Ministry's detectors don't work inside my shop. But, of course, I myself am allowing this only if it helps my business... Now then, if you will." Nodding, the young Potter pointed his wand towards the ceiling and paused, trying to think of the best spell to use. In the end, since he still couldn't connect to his wand, he decided that something simple, like wand-lighting charm, would be his best choice.

"**Lumos!**" Unfortunately, nothing happened. "**Lumos!**" Harry tried again, this time trying to push as much of his magic into the spell as he could. This time, it worked. Almost. A flickering ball of light had indeed appeared at the end of his wand, but it was so small and weak that even a muggle candle would give much more light... And, while he was pushing his magic into the spell, he could also feel the newest addition to his body – the gem stuck in his chest – start warming up a bit.

"That is... very interesting, Mr. Potter. I've never seen anything like that in my life, and, believe me, I've seen a lot of strange things." The old wand-maker said, snapping the green-eyed teen out of his thoughts about the gem.

"What are you talking about?" The dark-haired teen-wizard asked then on an automate.

"Look at your feet, Mr. Potter." Raising his eyebrow at a strange suggestion, Harry still did exactly what Mr. Ollivander had said. On the floor, right under his feet, there now was a faintly-glowing magical circle that lazily rotated counter-clockwise completely on its own... Well, calling that a circle would be rather incorrect, as it actually was an eight-pointed star, created by two overlapping squares. What was even more interesting, the lines that formed this 'star' were made from runic characters – which Harry couldn't even begin to understand.

"What's that?" The green-eyed teen asked. Unfortunately for him, the shop's master had no answer.

"As I've said, Mr. Potter, I've never encountered anything like that before. I'm sorry, but I don't think I will be able to help you with this one... Though..." Here he made a small pause, before asking: "Had anything strange happened to you around the time your wand stopped responding to you?" Harry was silent for a few seconds, before he finally decided that Mr. Ollivander was trustworthy enough.

"Yeah, something did." He said finally, before pulling the collar of his T-shirt down, revealing the gem he now had on his chest.

"That's some interesting thing you have here, Mr. Potter." The wand-maker said as he drew his own wand – which, quite surprisingly for Harry, appeared to be nothing special – and started casting some spells that the green-eyed teen had never heard of...

"Well?.." The dark-haired youth asked when maybe fifteen minutes later Mr. Ollivander was finally done inspecting the gem in his chest.

"This is most definitely the reason for your problems with your wand, Mr. Potter." The old wand-makers said. "I'm not sure what exactly this crystal is, but it has changed your magical core... I'm sorry to say it, but it looks like none of the wands I have in this shop right will work properly for you." Harry couldn't help but be down in the dump upon hearing that. And that didn't go unnoticed by the shop's master. "I'll contact Albus, I'm sure he can think of something that can help you."

"T-Thank you." Harry replied.

**~/ *** \~**

"Captain!" Warrant officer Aoba reported. "We've detected the Lost Logia again. I'm still unable to provide its exact location as it appears to be behind some sort of a disruption field, but this still allows us to significantly reduce the search area." Indeed, the monitors now showed the area where the Lost Logia could be as something barely larger than that 'London' megalopolis, whereas previous it was pretty much entire Southern part of the island.

"Thank you. And please forward this data to privates Makoto and Keigo." The captain of the investigative spaceship "Leto" replied. "Also, anything you can say about this disruption field?" Aoba shook his head.

"Unfortunately, no. This is the first time I've seen anything like that – instead of weakening the signal, like normal AMF would, it instead makes impossible to tell where it originates from." He said. "And to make things even more confusing, it doesn't look like any technology originating from this planet is capable of producing anything even close to it."

"I see..." The captain replied. "Then also tell our privates to be especially careful from now on. We have no idea who is in possession of the Lost Logia and what kind of force they will use to protect it." The warrant officer nodded: he would have done that anyway.

"Yes, sir." He replied, before opening a communication window to relay the captain's new orders to the troops that were currently looking for the Lost Logia on the surface of the non-administered world 138.

**~/ *** \~**

However he had done this, Mr. Ollivander had relayed the news of Harry's condition to Dumbledore really fast. It was still just an early afternoon, when the Hogwarts headmaster arrived to the 'Leaky Cauldron' via the floo with madam Pomfrey in tow. After exchanging the greetings, the three of them headed to the room the green-eyed teen was renting. Once there, Albus proceeded to set up some powerful wards to prevent anyone from overhearing was they were going to discuss.

"So... What kind of a problem have you gotten yourself in this time, Mr. Potter?" The Hogwarts matron asked with a deep sigh almost as soon as the additional wards were up.

"Well..." Harry replied, before removing his shirt, giving the two adults in the room a clear view of the newest addition to his body. Madam Pomfrey furrowed her brows, before drawing her wand and proceeding to cast a battery of diagnostic spells... Since she much better at those than Mr. Ollivander, she also finished quite a bit faster.

"What can I say..." She began her report. "Your body, despite this thing that shouldn't be there, is in a good condition. I honestly expected to find you in a worse state, given your usual adventures and their results." Harry couldn't help but snort. "But, unfortunately, I can't say the same about your magic, Mr. Potter. This gem in your chest is definitely affecting your core, which, just like Mr. Ollivander had said, causes you the problems with your wand..."

"Then let me try running a few tests of my own?" Dumbledore said after he finished listening to madam Pomfrey's report. Upon Harry's nod, the Hogwarts headmaster began casting his spells. And, judging by the way his facial expression changed, the results he kept getting couldn't exactly be called good... Finally returning his wand into its holster, the aged warlock spoke.

"First of all, I will once again confirm the findings of my colleagues: this gem has indeed changed your magical core into something probably never seen before. And this change isn't exactly conductive to your use of magic, Harry." Even though the young Potter already knew this, hearing it again still hurt. "The only positive side effect of this merger is the darkness from your cursed scar being purged." Here he made a pause. "Anyway, I managed to find a few things about this gems you've found yourself stuck with. First of all, it contains ridiculous amounts of magical energy within itself, and it also seems to be able to generate more, through means I cannot comprehend. And despite being a magical crystal, it appears to be capable of fusing with human flesh pretty well, which raised a few questions about its origins: even the Philosopher's stone of Flamels wasn't capable of doing something like that."

"I see..." The green-eyed teen breathed out. "But what does this all mean for me? Can I go back to Hogwarts the way I am now?" He asked. Dumbledore shook his head.

"I'm afraid, Harry, that it might not be possible. After all, if I am to believe what Garrick – I mean, Mr. Ollivander – you are having troubles casting spells even as simple as lighting charm. The magic you would have learned this year is more advanced and noticeably more demanding in magical power. Something you seem to be having troubles with."

"But I still can!" Harry almost cried out. There was no way he was not returning to Hogwarts!

"Then, prove that you are still capable of keeping up with your peers." Dumbledore said gravely. The young Potter immediately accepted the challenge and drew his wand.

"**Lumos!**" Remembering how it was back in Mr. Ollivander's shop he immediately began pushing as much power into the spell as he could produce. The results, though, weren't any better than the ones he had the previous time: the ball of light at the tip of his want was still really really weak. That, and the magic 'circle' under his feet once again made its appearance.

"Ah, yes,.." The Hogwarts headmaster commented. "Garrick did mention that whenever you try drawing out impressive amounts of magical power, a glowing runic arrays appear." Here, he made a pause. "But, anyway... I'm sorry, Harry, but even though you are still capable of casting the most basic spells, the amounts of power you need to achieve that would make anything beyond the first year an impossible task for you..." Another small pause. "Just to give you a perspective on how badly you have been affected by your incident. Right now, to create a barely-visible at all light with lighting charm, you are using enough magic to create a fully-corporeal Patronus. And that is a spell that maybe only ten percents of the most powerful wizards and witches can do."

As that revelation finally finished sinking into the dark-haired youth's head, he suddenly lost all of his will to keep fighting. So much so that he simply collapsed on the floor right where he was standing.

"I'm truly sorry, Harry." Dumbledore continued. "But given that the change in your magical core is most definitely a permanent one, I'm not sure I will be able to find a way to help you quickly enough. It might take even whole years before a proper cure for your condition is ready... I'm really really sorry that this had happened to you, my boy..." Alas, Harry didn't seem to be even hearing him...

**~/ *** \~**

"Captain!" Warrant officer Aoba called. "The Lost Logia has been detected again." He reported "It is still behind that strange disruption field, but it had changed its position somewhat, so I might be able to further reduce the search area. Please give me a few minutes to work on it."

"Thank you." The captain replied. "And please do so." Acknowledging his superior's order, Aoba began working on this task. Multiple images, maps and charts flickered across his monitors, eventually setting into a detailed map of this 'London' city with only the central districts being marked as the potential locations of the Lost Logia they had been trying to find for the last few days.

"Here you go, Captain." He said as the sent the updated map to the main screen of the "Leto"'s bridge. "Should I send the data to privates too?" The commander of the spaceship shook his head.

"No need, I will be recalling them inboard now – it's almost lunch the end of the shift anyway. You can give them the briefing when they arrive." Warrant officer Aoba nodded.

"Understood." He replied, before returning his attention to his workstation. While he wasn't sure it will really work, it was possible that the search area could still be reduced a little bit more with the data he had. He just needed to run a few tests on it...

**~/ *** \~**

By the time Harry had eventually overcome the shock from learning that he now was essentially a squib and would not be going to Hogwarts come September the first, it was already an early evening and both Dumbledore and madam Pomfrey – both of whom had thing more important than baby-sitting him to do – had already left the 'Leaky Cauldron' long time ago.

The young Potter lifelessly went downstairs to have some early dinner. His low spirits didn't go unnoticed by Tom the bartender, but the green-eyed teen refused to tell the man what his problem was. He wasn't ready to tell this even to his closest friends, Hermione and Ron. And thinking about how they will react when he won't show up for the Hogwarts express or the Start-of-the-year feast seemed to only send him deeper into the depression.

To make things even worse for the dark-haired youth, no longer being able to keep up with the magical due to being a squib now, he would have to return to the muggle side. And, honestly, he could readily imagine how difficult it would be to catch up with his peers there. Not to mention, he needed to find himself a more permanent place to stay: he couldn't possibly be renting a room at the 'Leaky Cauldron' forever, now could he?

Completely losing his appetite, the young Potter left his still semi-filled plate on the table and headed out of the pub and into the busy streets of the muggle London. He needed a long walk to calm down and clear his head... And trying to do that in the Diagon Alley wouldn't work at all. After all, seeing all those magical things everywhere, whether he really wanted to or not, was bound to make him even more unhappy that he already was...

Being in the state he was, the green-eyed teen allowed his feet to carry him wherever they wanted to. And he had been walking aimlessly like that for hours – at least the now-completely-dark sky above his head told him so. Looking around, the young Potter found that his wandering through the streets of London had brought him to the Burgess park. Oh well, Harry thought... This was a nice place and, truth to be said, he was kind of tired from all of the walking he had done today.

Deciding that he should relax for a little bit before heading back to the 'Leaky Cauldron', the dark-haired not-anymore-wizard sat down on a bench... To bad, the Fate decided that it was not the time for him to rest: just a few minutes later, he notices a glowing ball of greenish light floating among the trees, as if it was looking for something. Then it noticed him...

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	3. Close encounter of the third kind

The third chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**edboy4926**, **Rennerd**, **karthik9**, **Impstar**, **Ranmaleopard**, **lordamnesia**, **Penny is wise**, **thunder18**, **serialkeller**, **Angel Thera**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Gracealma**, Tommy-boy will be facing one insignificant little problem in going after Harry... Namely, Harry is too far away. Mid-Childa away.  
**Xamusel - Gamma 11**, no, there is another route opening for him, and he will be rather properly persuaded into taking in via gunboat diplomacy.  
**Sakura Lisel**, No, there definitely will be those who think that if you can't use a wand, you're a squib. But, no, neither Harry nor even Dumbledore are among those. The problem is, Dumbledore chose the worst possible time to be truthful (there is really no way for him to know how much time developing the cure for Harry's condition will take) and the worst possible words to tell Harry about it. And let's not forget that Harry himself is plentifully stressed already, thanks to the discovery of his magic having changed. Thus,... well, Harry now indeed thinks that Dumbledore thinks of him as a squib.  
**ultima-owner**, TSAB isn't above using gunboat diplomacy. And they can be persuasive. Hell, the title of the story should give you the answer ;) 

* * *

**_Disclaimer_**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

_**Special thanks**_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter  
chapter III: Close encounter of the third kind**

Harry sat still as a statue as the mysterious ball of light floated towards him: while it didn't look like it would attack at a bare possibility, one could never be sure... Thankfully, this particular magical construct proved to be quite harmless as after just a few seconds it disappeared without a trace. It all was almost like he had hallucinated the whole thing... Yes, that probably was the case, the young Potter though. With a sigh, he returned his gaze onto the ground, completely missing a semi-transparent brownish barrier surrounding the area...

What he couldn't have missed, was a glowing greenish magical circle – of the same color as that ball of light not a minute earlier, actually – appearing roughly fifteen feet in front of him... And unlike his own one, this magical circle was really a circle, though it did have more concentric rings and squares inscribed in it.

Then there was a flash of light, and a man stepped out of – presumably his – magical circle. He was fairly tall, but also didn't look like he belonged to any race Harry could recognize. And he had naturally-light-blue hair! He was dressed into a deep-blue military uniform with somewhat-bulky white chest armor and shoulder straps over it. Finally, in his hands this man was holding what looked like magical staff, but of decisively-futuristic design.

The two of them stared at each other for a few long seconds. Then the man raised his staff and pointed it at the young Potter.

"**Ring bind!**" The man intoned, and the gem near the tip of the staff glowed for a brief moment. Then, four rings of greenish light appeared around the green-eyed teen's limbs, making it impossible for him to move. "You are under arrest for possessing and using class L restricted object. Do not resist and you will be given a chance to defend yourself in front of the authorities."

"What the..." Harry began, but a wide strip of magically-created light appeared across his mouth, gagging him. His captor lowered his staff.

"You will have your chance to speak later. Be silent now." Just as he finished saying that, another magical circle, this time carmine in color, appeared next to him. And a moment later, another man in similar uniform and with a similar-looking futuristic staff in his hands stepped out of it. While this one had more natural-looking short brown hair, his race was still as unguessable as the one of his apparent partner. "The holder of the Lost Logia is captured, private first class Belta!" Harry's captor said while giving a salute.

"Good job, private Cynos." The newly-arrived man responded, returning the salute. Then he created a holographic screen out of the thin air. Apparently, this was some sort of a videophone as the young Potter could see yet another man in these deep-blue uniforms – though this one wasn't wearing any armor – with something that looked like a spaceship bridge from a sci-fi movie in the background. "Captain!" Belta said while he and his partner saluted to their superior. "We have secured the holder of the Lost Logia and are ready to transfer him." The man on the other end of the video-bridge nodded.

"Good job, private first class Keigo Belta, private Makoto Cynos. You have the permission to transfer to "Leto". Warrant officer Hoshido and sub lieutenant Jazz will meet you in the bay." The captain, replied. The holographic screen then disappeared. The apparently-magical soldier who had captured him, Makoto was his name, picked Harry up and walked into the magical circle his partner had meanwhile created. Then the world the young Potter was seeing dissolved in a flash of light.

* * *

When Harry could see again – which was maybe just a couple of seconds later – he no longer was in the Burgess park. Or, if what he could see out of the large panoramic window on the left could be believed, no longer on the surface of the Earth. He was now inboard of a spaceship hundred times bigger than 'Mir' space station. And this spaceship was currently lazily floating high above the surface of the planet... His further thoughts were interrupted when two of the spaceship's officers approached his captors.

One of those two was a huge bald man with tanned skin. Sub lieutenant Jazz, or whatever the ship's captain had called him, judging by his shoulder straps. Accompanying him there was a noticeably more petite woman with flaming-crimson hair made into two tight buns on the sides of her head. Like the rest of the ship's crew, she wore the deep-blue uniform, though she also had a white doctor's coat thrown over it.

"He looks like a stray wind can break him." Jazz observed as Harry's captors saluted to him. "Are you sure that he really is the one in possession of the Lost Logia, privates?"

"Yes, sir!" Both of them replied simultaneously. Then Makoto, who was the one to really capture Harry, continued: "My device does register a powerful signature within his body. And it is way too powerful to be his linker core." The bald sub lieutenant eyed the captured green-eyed teen for a few seconds, before sighing in acceptance.

"Very well, let's get him to the briefing room and get all of the information about whom he is working for out of him." Then he muttered something about the fact that he should have already been home a few days ago as he turned around and began stalking away, soon disappearing from Harry's view behind automated doors... Presumably, that man was heading to the room where his interrogation would held.

The privates, who were still holding the young Potter, began towing him after their superior, while the red-haired doctor-woman quietly followed them, keeping a small distance of a few steps between them. After being dragged along the spaceship's corridors for a couple of minutes, the green-eyed Earthling was brought to a surprisingly large room with a long table able to fit at least twenty men in its center. Sub lieutenant Jazz was already there, sitting at the head of that table with a couple of holographic displays hovering in front of him.

"Drop him somewhere and remove the gag – if I am to interrogate him, he must be able to talk." The bald officer barked. After giving a cry of 'Aye, sir!', the privates that had captured him, brought Harry to one of the chairs at the center of the table dropped him onto it rather unceremoniously. Then they made a step back – with their staffs drawn – and Makoto made the magical gag in the green-eyed teen's mouth disappear into nothingness.

"What in the Merlin's name is going on!" The dark-haired teen cried out immediately. "Where am I and what gives you lot the right to just abduct me?!" No, he remembered his captor telling something about possessing and using some sort of a forbidden item, but he didn't care about that right now. The men in the blue uniforms shared glances with each other, as if communicating telepathically.

"You've been arrested for possessing and using class L restricted object." Lieutenant baldy growled. "My privates have already told you this, so don't play stupid with us." Letting out a sigh, he continued: "Now, depending on how much you cooperate with us, you might end up in the rehab program or be sent to one of the orbital prisons 'till you die there." Another pause, which the man used to glare at Harry. "So... What were you doing with that Lost Logia?"

"What's Lost Logia?" The young Potter shot back without really thinking. But that simple question had stunned his interrogator into the silence for a good ten seconds.

"Don't fuckin' joke with me, punk!" Jazz roared, slamming his hands against the table as he stood up. It looked like he was about to come at the still-magically-bound green-eyed teen, but was stopped when the red-haired 'doctor' spoke.

"It might be hard to believe, but this boy genuinely believes in not knowing what you are talking about." The 'doc' woman said. Turning his head around to look at his savior for the moment, Harry noticed that right now she had some strange shades covering her eyes that she wasn't wearing before. And judging by flashing lights on the lenses, those shades were not just a cool accessory.

"What are you talking about, Aoko?" Jazz turned his attention to the coat-wearing woman. "Every fuckin' trainee mage in the TSAB knows what Logia are since like the first fuckin' day of their training! I refuse to believe that someone who actually possesses one doesn't know what it fuckin' is!" His shouting didn't seem to phase Aoko, though.

"You know as well as I do that anyone can make mistakes, Jazz." She replied. "But as far as I can tell, he is not lying about not knowing about Logia. Also, my Prüferbrille tells me that his linker core is greatly underdeveloped. He cannot be a trained mage, despite having the Logia literally stuck in his chest." The bald lieutenant sighed as he retook his seat.

"Fine. But you'll do the explaining." He grumbled while crossing his arms on his chest. "You're the scientist here. I just kick asses."

"Very well." Aoko replied. Then she turned to look at Harry, who, despite the situation, was quite interested in what the red-haired woman had to say. After all, apparently, she knew something about the gem that was stuck in his chest. "Lost Logia is the collective name for the number of ancient magical relics of great power." She explained. "At the moment at least three hundreds of them have been documented, but still more are to be found. Some of them are passive and rather harmless if kept out of the villains' hands, but there also are some that can cause catastrophes on their own should they awaken." Upon hearing that, Harry instinctively looked down at his chest.

"Oh." He breathed out.

"Don't worry." The red-haired scientist reassured him. "According to scans done by my colleague aboard of this very vessel, the one in your, let's say, possession is neutrally-aligned, and it's not all that powerful one too. It still contains the power beyond what any mage can reasonably have on their own, but it won't – I dunno – go off and randomly start an apocalypse like _some other_ might."

"That's nice to know..." The young Potter said. He didn't fancy the thought of carrying a magical equivalent of an armed nuke in his body.

"Now then, tell us where you got the thing from?" The sub lieutenant Jazz said, directing a threatening glare at the still-magically-bound Earthling.

"Well... Um... I fell on it." Harry replied as he did as best of a shrug as he could with his limbs still restrained, while also looking like an innocence incarnate. His interrogator, though, didn't seem to like the answer, but, once again, the bald man was stopped by 'doctor' Aoko.

"He isn't lying as far as I can tell, so chill out." She said.

"I still don't believe him." Jazz shot back. "He must be hiding something. Logia don't just lie scattered on the ground down there, do they?" A glare directed at the young Potter told him that he should be quiet for now... There was a pretty long silence, during which the two officers kept communicating telepathically. "Hoshido-san and I are going to consult with the captain." The bald sub lieutenant finally said. "You two will be guarding the brat. And if he as much as moves from his place, I will have you cleaning the toilets at the space prison for the rest of your careers." With those words he stood up and marched out of the room with the red-haired warrant officer hurrying after him.

* * *

Maybe fifteen or so minutes later, the two of them returned. With the sub lieutenant looking none too happy – not that he appeared to be a cheerful individual to being with... The red-haired 'doctor', on the other hand, seemed to be quite smug about something.

"It seems that you are quite lucky today, brat." Jazz barked. "Captain decided to believe this woman over there and agreed that unless proven otherwise, you are not a part of some Logia-collecting terrorist organization." Turning to the two privates that had been standing behind Harry all this time, he ordered: "Release the bindings on him." The young Potter felt the his two guards move and a moment later the rings of light around his limbs disappeared, allowing him to move them again.

"Does this mean I can go home now?" The green-eyed teen asked then, while warming up his a little bit numb – hey, being unable to move for an hour would do that! – arms and legs. The 'doctor' was the one to give his question an answer, and, unfortunately, it wasn't the answer Harry wanted to hear.

"I'm afraid, it all isn't that simple." She said. "Now that you are connected to Lost Logia, it won't just go away. And, what's more, because of that, you will become a target of various people wishing to use you to further their own agendas." Here, she let out a sigh. "I won't even sugar-coat things by saying that we're much different. TSAB – that would be 'Time-Space Administration Bureau' – too would like to have your power on its side. The greatest difference between us and the rest of the Logia hunters you will no doubt meet is that we guarantee to pay you fairly for your efforts in assisting us in money, goods as well as in our support and protection."

Harry let out a sigh. While he really hoped that they'd let him go and his life would return to whatever could be called a norm for him... But he also understood that the chances of that happening were slim: he had been abducted by a group of magic users in possession of a freaking spaceship after all. And now that it was actually confirmed that he wasn't returning to Earth anytime soon – even if he tried to flee, these people had already proven themselves capable of catching him – all he could do was gathering as much information about what was in the future for him as he could.

"Assuming that I accept the offer... What is going to happen to me?" He asked.

"Well..." Once again, it was warrant officer Aoko Hoshido who was giving him the answers. "Once this case is resolved, you will be brought to the TSAB HQ. And from there... Well, the chances are, you will be placed into the care of Magitek Research Department attached to the Infinite Library in the Main Office. Tactical Instructor Corps taking you in is another possibility..." She made a small pause. "I'm sorry to say that, but whether you want it or not, thanks to that artifact in your chest, military-related professions are the only careers available to you in the foreseeable future." Then, tilting her head to the side slightly, she added with a small smile: "But, at least, the pay is good, and in a decade or so, you will be able to retire and pick some other job to do."

"I see..." Harry replied with a sigh. Under any other circumstances he'd tell them that Dumbledore won't permit it, but he was quite sure that even the Hogwarts headmaster wouldn't be able to get him out of the spaceship gone beyond the Earth's orbit. If they wanted to take him by force, there was nothing that could stop them... Not that they were all that bad, despite handling him quite roughly in the beginning; joining them might be one of the better options... Even if he'd rather stay on Earth.

"Well, brat, what are you going to say?" The sub lieutenant's voice tore the young Potter out of his thoughts. "Are you going with us or what?"

"Fine." Like he had a choice, the green-eyed teen thought... "But may I at least collect my things and send out a few letters to my friends telling them that I'm moving out and they shouldn't look for me? And it's not like I will be able to run away from you – you've shown already that can capture me if you want to." Harry pushed. The people in the room shared a look.

"That seems reasonable enough." 'Doctor' Aoko said after a few seconds. "Though, the captain will have the final word in it, I'm sure, you will get his permission. Should I ask him now?" She asked then. The young Potter nodded. Returning the nod, the red-haired scientist once again left the room.

While she was gone, the green-eyed teen couldn't help but think about the ways his life was going to change... Soon, he will leave the Earth, likely forever. And the chances were, he'd never be able to speak to or even write to his friends there. He'll miss them dearly. He'll miss his chess games with Ron, and Hermione bugging them with doing their homework on time... He'll miss the rest of Gryffindors, and his professors... And Hogwarts, he'll definitely miss it. It had been his home for the last two years, after all... Hell, he might even miss Malfoy and his goons annoying him!

'Doctor' Aoko returning to the room pulled Harry out of his thoughts. "Captain agreed to give you a few hours to finish your businesses on the planet. Do you want to do that now, or would you rather do it in a few hours, when the night is over?"

"I'd rather do it in the morning... I'm kinda tired now." Harry said after thinking for a few moments. Plus, since he'd be taking Hedwig with him, he'll need to use post office in the Diagon alley, and it didn't open until eight in the morning. Speaking of his beautiful snowy owl... "Will there be any problems if I bring my pet here? – There will be no one left to take care of her when I leave my place." He asked then – there was no way he was not taking her with him. The red-haired warrant officer in a lab coat shrugged.

"Unless it's something deadly or dangerous, I can't see why not." She replied.

"No, nothing like that... It's just... She is an owl." Harry said.

"An owl?" 'Doctor' Aoko asked in surprise as the lights began flickering behind the lenses of her shades. "It's... a very unusual pet..." She said finally. "But I don't think there will be any problems with her being aboard "Leto". We always do have some kind of a meat on the table, so she will have something to eat until we arrive to HQ."

"Alright. Thank you." The young Potter replied.

"Shall I guide you to the room you will be staying for now?" The red-haired woman asked then. Receiving a nod from the green-eyed teen, she began guiding him out of the briefing room, but a call from the sub lieutenant stopped them in the doors.

"It should be around midnight by your time, right now." The bald man stated. "We will be waking you up in six hours, brat, so get as much rest as you can. You are on the ship belonging to Dimensional Navy, so you _will_ behave like a proper member of the crew. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!" Harry replied on automate. Apparently, that was the correct answer, as Jazz nodded, thus telling him and Aoko that they could continue on their way to wherever they were going... When they were some distance away from the briefing hall, the red-haired 'doctor' spoke:

"While you can be assured that Jazz will have you woken up when he said he will, do you want to write those letters you wanted to send to you friends now? I imagine, tomorrow will be a very busy day for you." She asked.

"Yeah. That would be quite helpful." Harry agreed. Then, he remembered that so far he had seen people inboard of this spacecraft using only holographic displays. "You have... paper, right?" He asked.

"Yes. I will bring some to you room." Was Aoko's response, which made the young Potter let out a sigh of relief... Soon enough, the red-haired 'doctor' stopped in front of an automatic door that looked no different from any other in this corridor "Here it is, the room you will be staying in till we arrive to HQ." She said, while pressing the button, thus making the door open.

The room was quite small. Then again, it was a _personal_ room inboard of a spaceship, so that could easily be forgiven... Occupying almost entire right side of the room there was a single raised bed with a few cabinets under it. And behind the bed, at the far end of the room, there was a very narrow wardrobe, probably big enough to fit just two or three sets of uniforms. The other side of the room had a small table with just digital clock sitting on it and a chair. And that was all.

"Get yourself comfortable. I'll go get you the paper and something to write with." Aoko said. Then, after thinking for a few seconds, she added: "The toilet and the showers are down the corridor at the very end." Nodding, Harry stepped into the room which he will be staying in the foreseeable future. Since all that he had at the moment were the clothes on his back and the contents of his pockets – nothing to fill the cabinets or wardrobe with – he just sat on the chair besides the table and waited for the 'doctor' to return, while his thoughts once again wandered towards his soon-to-left-behind friends... The woman returned a few minutes and handed him a few sheets of paper and a rather futuristic pen.

"Thank you." The young Potter said. But the red-haired 'doctor' waved her hand telling him to think nothing of it. Then she left the room, pressing the button to close to door on her way out. Sighing deeply, Harry stared at the sheets of paper he still held in his hands.

He now needed to write letters to Hermione, Ron and professor Dumbledore – now to think of it, one to professor McGonagall as well – telling them that he was leaving and that they shouldn't even look for him. And he needed to do that without ever mentioning the Magitek users with a freakin' spaceship that had ...persuaded him to come with them to whatever location their HQ was... These would, without any doubts, be some very hard letters to write...

He also needed to do something about his Earthly possessions... After all, he highly doubted that he'll be allowed to take anything but bare minimum with him. So, his broom and his books would have to stay on the planet. His half-completed summer homework too... And then there was the matter of his gold at Gringotts... Harry doubted that these people would accept magical currency, so if he wanted some seed money, he'd better convert his galleons into something that could be traded for goods or local currency anywhere...

But, anyway, tomorrow, like 'doctor' Hoshido had said, would be a busy day, and he needed to get some rest for it. So, he no thinking about anything but composing the letters. With that thought in mind, Harry got to 'work'...

_Dear professor Dumbledore,_  
_I'm terribly sorry about this, but it looks like I won't be returning to Hogwarts, neither this year, nor in the future. An opportunity turned up, and I'm moving out of the country to a place far and far away.._.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	4. Leaving the Earth

The fourthchapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**edboy4926**, well, what do you expect from the organization, with many 'befriended' ex-criminals working for it? Of course, the proper protocols will be breached every now and then.  
**skifast**, **Jose19**, **Star Iron**, **ultima-owner**, **chm01**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Thracer**, **karthik9**, **thunder18**, **Sakura Lisel**, **moon so bright**, **Guest**, **Nyamu**, FateBurn, **Opinr**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Junky**, core will be fixed, and you don't underestimate Lost Logia, even if it is merely a class 4 one - it is still a very very powerful artifact.  
**Penny is wise**, they presumed that since his core isn't properly developed he isn't a mage, and thus likely has no knowledge of those shields. Which is technically true, since Harry really doesn't know how those wards around the Diagon alley are made and how they function.  
**serialkeller**, the cloak will be with him, worry not.  
**Kitsunegan**, he's tired and depressed by the events earlier that day; he thinks that magical world doesn't want him. Yet he also understands that his magic isn't gone, and here come the (admittedly, less than friendly at the first glance) people that tell him that there is a chance of him re-learning to use magic. And since they are a part of interstellar organization, they aren't a gang of space pirates or something like that - they are lawful, likely lawful good in their alignment, so Harry might feel that if they stop treating him like he is a criminal, he might actually just fit in with their ranks.

*** AN**: Forgot to mention it the last time, I've added a link to Harry's complete (he should get there in a few chapters) magical circle to my profile.

Also, I'm running out of the pre-prepared chapters, and in the following days I won't have much time to write anything thanks to the impending exams I need to pass for my candidate of science degree - getting ready for those will leave no time for just about anything else.

And one more thing to clarify: while it isn't obvious yet, Harry is about four years older than the (future) Aces in this story. While this does place some restriction the less combat-related parts of the story that still have potential to reach M rating... Will it matter once I get to about StrikerS manga part of the timeline? Not to mention that maybe, just maybe, a certain silver-haired red-eyed beauty won't actually have to commit an overly-glorified suicide this time around.

* * *

**_Disclaimer_**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

_**Special thanks**_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter  
chapter IV: Leaving the Earth**

Even though he was really tired by the time he finished writing his last goodbye letter, Harry still couldn't sleep well. No, the bed he was given was actually quite nice. His dreams were the problem. They were plagued by various scenarios of him bidding the final farewells to the various people he knew. And let's just say that not all of those went well...

That, and he was woken up way too soon by someone banging their fist against the door of his room. Sitting up with a yawn, Harry looked at the clock which sat on the room's table. It was two minutes past six in the morning already. And that meant that the one disturbing him was no one other than sub lieutenant Jazz.

"Are you awake yet, brat?" The said man asked loudly enough for the green-eyed teen hear him clearly even through the tightly-shut door of his room.

"Yes, sir!" Harry yelled back, while doing his best not to drop back onto the bed and go back to sleep.

"Good." The sub lieutenant answered: "Now get dressed and washed up, the breakfast is in ten minuted. Warrant Officer Hoshido agreed to take you down to the surface; you better not make her wait." The young Potter grumbled something not really intelligible in response as he straightened his clothes – he had been to tired to undress before going to sleep ...tonight? "What was that?!" Jazz asked.

"Yes, sir!" Harry shouted to get the man stop bothering him so early in the morning. With another sigh, the green-eyed teen finally got out of the bed and walked up to the door. Still being half-asleep, it took him a couple of moments to remember that the door didn't have a handle and he needed to press a button on the wall to open it instead.

Falling out into the corridor, the young Potter headed towards where the bathroom was supposed to be in a good imitation of a zombie from a horror movie. Jazz accompanied him there as he'd need to guide the Earthling to the mess in a few minutes anyway...

Some washing up with cold water later, and the green-eyed teen was a little bit more awake. As soon as he was done with his morning routine, the sub lieutenant guided him to the mess. Which, considering the fact that it was inboard of a spacecraft, too was impressively-big. This spaceship had to be even bigger than Harry originally though!

"This will be your seat for the time being." Sub lieutenant Jazz said as pointed him to an empty seat at the table occupied by the vessel's lower ranks, where a tray of food was waiting for him. "Eat up." And without waiting for a response from the young Earthling, the bald officer headed to his seat at the other table... Sighing, Harry sat down and eye the food. It didn't really look like anything he was used to, but he also was hungry enough not to really care about that. It also helped that despite its looks, the food tasted much like what the young Potter was used to...

Sometime around the middle of the breakfast, the captain of the spaceship himself showed up. Harry noticed it when everyone else in the room suddenly stood up to salute for their commander. Not really wanting to stick out like a sore thumb, the green-eyed teen hasted to follow their example, even if he was neither a part of the spaceship's crew nor an agent of this TSAB organization yet.

Once everyone returned to their meals, Harry sneakily studied at the captain. And while the man wasn't as big and brutish as Jazz, he was still intimidating – if one didn't know that he was actually pretty kind – he did look almost like a comic character Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. without an eye-patch after all.

When he eventually was done with his breakfast, Harry, following the example of the others, left his tray on the small table next to the sinks. Then, deciding that there was no reason for him to hang inside the mess, he walked out – he could wait for the 'doctor' Aoko in the corridor just as well. The said red-haired mage soon walked out of the mess herself.

"There you are." She said as she spotted the young Potter. "Ready for the day?"

"Yeah, just let me get the letters from the room, and I'm all set." The green-eyed teen replied... Then he recalled something. "Also... I don't think we've been formally introduced yet." The 'doctor' nodded.

"Well, yes, yesterday was quite a day for everyone, wasn't it?.. Anyway, I'm warrant officer Aoko Hoshido, originally from administered world #3, Vaizen. I'm in charge of the scientific facilities and the medical bay inboard of this spaceship." She introduced herself.

"And I'm Harry Potter. From Earth..." The green-eyed teen said. Then he added: "The deadweight, I guess." Aoko, though, shook her head.

"No, not really." After all, as a carrier of a Lost Logia, he would be a great asset for the Bureau once he got some proper training... "And one more thing, since there is more than one world called Earth, which we at TSAB keep an eye on, you should use 'non-administered world 138' instead, so that you won't confuse people."

"Alright." He replied quite on an automate, while trying to decide on how he should feel about this revelation. After all, until yesterday, his home planet had been more or less the center of the universe for him. And now he learned that it was just some numbered 'world' on the outskirts of an interstellar confederation, the one not even in the first hundred...

They walked rest of the way back to the room Harry was staying in without saying another word. And once the young Potter had collected the letters to his friends and professors he had written yesterday, Aoko guided him to the transportation chamber – the very first room he had seen in his time aboard of this spaceship. The red-haired 'doctor' had them walk into the center of the chamber then.

"Are you ready?" She asked the green-eyed Earthling as a red magical circle appeared under her feet. And upon his nod, she activated the spell, making Harry's world dissolve into a flash of light.

* * *

A few moments later, the young Potter found himself once again standing in the Burgess park. Actually, the 'doctor' brought him to pretty much the same spot he had been taken to spaceship from yesterday. Harry could understand why she had chosen this place, even if he'd rather she dropped him off somewhere closer to Charing Cross and the 'Leaky Cauldron'.

"Alright..." The red-haired warrant officer began. "Since I have better things to do than chaperoning you the whole day – not that I'm sure you'd like me to do that anyway – just tell me how much time you need to conclude your businesses in this world?" She asked. "Would six hours be enough?" The young Potter thought about it for a few moments.

"Probably." Was his answer.

"Good..." Aoko said. Then, she had a holographic display with clock on it spring to life in front of her. "It's about seven in the morning here, so... At one in the afternoon here, then?" Making a small pause, she added: "Just remember, if you aren't here by then, we will start searching."

"I'll do my best to be here on time." Harry said, sufficiently threatened by the thought of space-mages wreaking havoc across London in attempt to find him.

"Good." Aoko said, before her circle flared to life under her feet.

"Wait!" The young Potter called. There were a few things he needed to ask.

"Yes?" The red-haired 'doctor' asked as she raised her eyebrow.

"I have some money to my name here..." The green-eyed teen began. "But I'm sure your currency is different, so... Is there anything in particular that I will be able to easily sell for money in your world?" There was a couple of seconds, before he was given an answer.

"Well..." 'Doctor' Hoshido began. "Precious metals are always valuable since a they are used in the production of devices. And jewelry too, of course. Rubies and diamonds too are used in the production of high-end technology. And a nice natural gem still beats anything artificial, even if it is created with our level of tech." She said. "I'm sure that you'd be able to sell anything of that for some nice seed money on any of the administered worlds."

"Thanks, I'll be sure to convert my remaining assets into those while I'm at the local bank." Harry told her, while secretly happy that he wouldn't have to start dirt poor in whatever world he'd end in.

"Is there anything else?" Aoko asked next.

"Nothing I can think of at the moment." The young Potter replied as he shook his head.

"Well then, see you in a few hours. Don't be late." The red-haired 'doctor' said, before disappearing in a flash of light, presumably returning to the spaceship to do whatever she needed to do there.

**~/ *** \~**

After telling Tom the bartender that he will be moving out later today, Harry went to the room he was renting at the 'Leaky Cauldron' and started sorting through his things. His broom, he decided, will go to Ron – he doubted that it would really be okay for him to bring it inboard of "Leto", and he wasn't even sure it would work for him at all... His schoolbooks could be given away as charity, as could be his Hogwarts robes. And his completed summer homework... After some thinking, the young Potter decided that he should attach it to the letter he was going to send to professor McGonagall once the owl post office in the Diagon alley opened for today's business.

Thus, the only things left in his trunk were his casual clothes – even if he probably should get himself something more presentable – his invisibility cloak, the photo album, his personal hygiene items and various trinkets he had been gifted with over the last two years. And, Hedwig's things and a couple of not-perishable snacks. That should be enough for the time being, he decided.

Done with sorting through his stuff, the young Potter picked the books and robes he was going to give away and headed out into the Diagon alley. Thanks to being with the Weasleys there the previous summer, he knew where the second-hand shops were, thus needn't waste any time on searching for them. He was on a tight schedule, after all... The shop keeper was very happy about him giving the things away, but, for whatever reason, refused to accept them without paying him back. In the end, Harry agreed to sell his goods to the man for a token price of three knuts.

With that done, the young Potter headed to Gringotts. Since it was still pretty early in the morning, the bank's hall was mostly empty with only a few tellers to serve rare customers. Picking the one goblin that appeared to be the least busy, Harry walked up to the counter.

"What can I do for you today, human?" The goblin sneered, without stopping whatever he was doing.

"I'm Harry James Potter and I want to know whether there is a family vault to my name." The green-eyed teen said. After all, while it was entirely possible that the vault he had seen already was the only one, confirming it would never hurt.

"Prove that you are who you claim to be." The teller replied as he slid him a piece of parchment and a blood-red quill that looked at very least suspiciously-dangerous. "Write your name on the parchment and we will see if you are truthful." Nodding, Harry did as he was told, wincing slightly when he felt the magic carve the letters onto the back of his hand. "Hm..." The goblin breathed out as he examined the parchment. "It appears that you are indeed Mr. Harry Potter..." After a pause, the teller continued: "As for your question, yes, there is a vault to your name besides the trust vault you have the key to. If you wish to learn more, you need to arrange for a meeting with your account manager."

"Can I see him now?" The green-eyed teen asked. He was really short on time, and if he knew anything at all about goblins, the process of arranging for a meeting would take at least a few days.

"Now see here, human." The teller responded, clearly agitated. "Master Silverclaw is very busy, you can't just demand a meeting with him whenever you please!" Forcing himself to remain as calm as possible, Harry replied:

"Unfortunately, the situation I'm in requires me to have this meeting this morning. I'm willing to pay a lot of extra gold for your time, if it will let me have a meeting with him now." The mention of extra payment seemed to have changed the goblin's mind.

"Very well..." He replied. "I shall ask if master Silverclaw agrees to see on these conditions. Don't get your hopes up, though, human, and get your gold ready." With those words the teller summoned one of errand-boy-goblins and had a short conversation with him in a language Harry couldn't understand. The younger goblin finally nodded and and headed out of the hall as fast as he could without breaking into a run. "Is there anything else you want meanwhile?" The young Potter was asked next.

"That would depend on whether I'm allowed to see my account manager." Nodding, the teller returned to doing whatever he did before the green-eyed teen had shown up at his counter... It took the errand boy a few minutes to return, but when he did, he brought some good news for Harry: master Silverclaw agreed to see him now.

"Looks like Luck is on your side today, human." The teller commented. "Follow Copperfork, he'll guide you to master Silverclaw's office." He said then, gesturing towards the errand-boy-goblin.

* * *

"Alright, Mr. Potter, what kind of a business you have that is so important, that it absolutely can't wait?" Silverclaw asked as he directed a piercing stare at the green-eyed teen.

"Well... You see..." Harry began. "I'm in the need of closing the Potter vaults."

"What?" The account manager almost yelled. "Why do you want that? Is our service not up to your satisfaction, Mr. Potter?" He asked in a demanding tone. Harry shook his head.

"No, nothing like that, master Silverclaw. Your services are as good as they can be. My life, however, demands me to move to a far away location, permanently, this afternoon. I know for sure that your bank has no branches there and I have my doubts that I will ever be able to return here and properly use the Potter family assets."

"I see..." The goblin said as he deflated. There was a pretty long silence, before he spoke again: "Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to touch the main Potter vault until you are at least fifteen years old, So there is nothing you can do about those at this moment. You can only manage your trust vault." Harry sighed. While this wasn't unexpected, he'd rather be able to close everything and move on to the next chapter of his life without anything left behind unmanaged...

"Can I at least order to seal the vaults and properties I will gain upon becoming a legal adult? Even if I won't be able to access them from the place I'm going to, I'd rather not someone else claim and misuse them." He asked then. Silverclaw nodded.

"Yes that would be quite possible, though there is quite a bit of paperwork you will need to fill out for that." The goblin said, causing the green-eyed teen shudder a little bit at the thought of writing Merlin knows how much with a blood quill.

"Alright, I'll sign those parchments." He said. Nodding, the house Potter's account manager summoned an errand-boy-goblin and asked him to bring the appropriate forms – or, at least Harry thought he did, as he couldn't understand gobbledegook the goblins were speaking.

"While we're waiting for the forms, is there anything else you'd like to do with your estate?" Silverclaw asked.

"Yes." Harry said. "I would like to know, if it is possible to convert all of the money I have in my trust vault into gems and precious metals – mostly gold and platinum – that could safely be sold in the non-magical world at a later date." After thinking for a bit, he corrected himself: "All sans the amount I'll have to pay you for your efforts, of course."

"You don't want to start knutless at whatever place you're moving to?" Silverclaw asked. "Well, that is indeed possible. And I might be able to pull some strings and have your trust vault refilled a little bit earlier. This will let you convert twice as much galleons into the goods." He said. "Do you want that?"

"Please do so." Harry asked. Then the errand goblin returned, carrying a terrifyingly-tall stack of parchments that, apparently, were the forms that the young Potter needed to fill out to freeze the vaults and properties he couldn't close or liquidate.

"Here you go." Silverclaw said as he passed the forms to Harry, along with the familiar blood-red quill to fill those forms out. "I've included the paperwork for closing your trust vault as well." The young Potter nodded a 'thank you' for that. "And while you are filling these out, I will arrange for the moneys you can access to be converted into gems and precious metals you'll be able to resell."

"Thank you very much." The green-eyed teen said as he picked up the cursed quill and began the slow process of filling the forms out...

* * *

A little more than an hour later, Harry walked out of master Silverclaw's office with all of his business with Gringotts complete and two suitcases in his hands, one full of high-quality gems and the other containing a few pounds of precious metals. Now, there was just one last thing he needed to do before he could head back to the Burgess park and wait for 'doctor' Aoko to take him back to the spaceship: he needed to send the letters.

Since he had left those – and the other things he was going to send along with the actual letters – in his room at the 'Leaky Cauldron', Harry headed there. He also needed to drop the suitcase off somewhere as he had only two hands and carrying them plus his broomstick would be too troublesome when he had other options available.

Upon returning to the room he was renting at the pub, the young Potter discovered that Hedwig had returned and was now sleeping in her cage. The green-eyed teen could swear she somehow knew that the two of them would be leaving their homeland soon... Well, whatever... After petting his owl affectionately, Harry placed the suitcases under the mattress of the bed and, picking up the letters, his Nimbus 2000 and whatever homework he had completed, headed back into the Diagon alley. Not forgetting to get whatever galleons he still had or to lock the room properly on his way out, of course.

The clerk at the owl post office was a bit surprised when he learned just how much Harry wanted to send, but, hey, it earned him money so he wasn't going to complain... Having watched all of the owls carrying his post fly away, the young Potter glanced at the clock on the post office's wall.

It was still only half past ten, so he had quite a lot of time before he needed to meet with 'doctor' Aoko in Burgess park. And with all of his business in the alley complete, the green-eyed teen decided to move out of his room at the 'Leaky Cauldron' and waste what little remained of his wizarding money at the Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, getting his last taste of the delicious ice cream served there. Yeah, that sounded like a plan!..

* * *

Harry arrived to the Burgess park roughly fifteen minutes before one o'clock. Mostly because he had severely underestimated the difficulty of navigating through the busy streets of London with a trunk, two suitcases and a cage with an owl. But, somehow, there hadn't been any accidents on his way there... And despite the fact that he had arrived before the appointed time, the red-haired scientist was already waiting for him there.

"So,.. This is the pet owl you've been talking about?" Aoko asked as he eyed Hedwig curiously. "She's quite a beauty I must say." Upon hearing that, the snowy owl opened one yellow eye to look at the woman complimenting her. Then she closed it again, presumably going back to sleeping.

"Yeah, she is." Harry confirmed.

"Well then, since you're already here, I don't any point in wasting time. Let's get back inboard of our spaceship, shall we, Mr. Potter?" 'Doctor' Hoshido asked then. Upon the green-eyed teen's nod, she summoned a holographic display through which she requested the permission for the dimensional transfer from the vessel's captain. Of course, the said permission was give to her.

Discreetly creating a barrier around their location to prevent muggles from seeing anything they weren't supposed to see, the red-haired warrant officer created a magical circle. Already knowing what he should do next, Harry dragged himself and his belongings into that circle.

"Ready?" Aoko asked him. He simply nodded in response. And a few seconds the two of them once again were inboard of the investigation spaceship "Leto", which was about to depart from the orbit above the non-administered world 138...

**~/ *** \~**

Almost as soon as he had been returned inboard of the spaceship, Harry was confronted by sub lieutenant Jazz, who in no uncertain terms explained it to him that he wasn't on a cruise ship. Thus, no matter how short his stay aboard would be, he was still supposed to help the crew out by doing various minor tasks, even if he was a civilian. In other words, the duties of washing the dishes and other cleaning jobs were dumped on the young Potter for however much time he'd spend aboard "Leto".

Thus, as soon as the lunch was over, the green-eyed teen was sent to the kitchens to clean the food trays – not the most glorious of the jobs, but someone needed to do it anyway... And once the young Potter was done with the task, he headed back to his room, wishing to get some small rest. He didn't quite make it there as he was intercepted by the warrant officer Hoshido and dragged to her office.

"Alright." 'Doctor' Aoko said as she brought Harry into her, well, laboratory. Which also doubled as the medical bay. "I think it's about time I give you a proper physical, young man. I'm sure that the guys at HQ would appreciate it if they know what they are dealing with when I entrust you to them." The young Potter replied nothing. Not caring for his lack of response, the red-haired scientist ordered: "Alright then, strip to you underwear."

"Do I have to?" The green-eyed teen asked back. Aoko's glare told him that yes, he had too. "Fine..." Harry breathed out. Then he began removing his outer clothes. As his shirt and T-shirt came off, the 'doctor' eyed the scar on his left shoulder critically. She could probably tell that it wasn't something of mundane origin, but for whatever reason she wasn't about to inquire into where exactly he had gotten it.

"Now, lay onto this table so that I can run a few scans." She said, gesturing towards a raised bed, surrounded by a number of machines. Nodding, the young Potter did that. "Now, please, don't move." Once she was sure that he was following her instructions, the 'doctor' pressed something on the display hovering in the air in front of her and a crimson ring of energy that could only be magical in origin appeared at Harry's feet. This ring then began slowly moving towards the green-eyed teen's head...

After maybe half a minute, the ring reached his head and then promptly disappeared, while a numerous images began popping up on Aoko's displays – the young Potter hadn't noticed when, but she had summoned two more while he had been scanned.

"Well, your body is in a passable physical condition." The red-haired warrant officer said. "Though I'd recommend you doing your exercises regularly to build up some more muscle mass. And you should eat more – you're almost skin and bones." Harry let out an unintelligible sound, while cursing the Dursleys in his mind... Meanwhile, Aoko continued: "There also used to be a mana leech in your forehead, but it got burned off with barely a trace left behind when the Lost Logia had merged with your body, so nothing to worry about there." A small pause pause later, she continued: "And we will also need to do something about your eyesight, but that's not a priority thing."

"I wouldn't say 'no' to some better glasses." While they were structurally sound, thanks to a certain spell that repaired things, even Harry himself knew that the lenses weren't a perfect fit for him.

"Why? You can actually have your eyesight completely repaired." The 'doctor' asked. "Unless you like wearing glasses, of course..." The young Potter wasn't sure what to say: he had been wearing glasses for so long that he couldn't actually imagine himself without them anymore. But the thought of not needed them anymore too was tempting. "You don't have to make your mind up right now." Warrant officer Hoshido assured him. "Anyway, I've also managed to learn what Lost Logia you have there." She said, pointing at the green gem stuck in the dark-haired teen's chest.

"Mhm?" Harry prompted her to continue, wanting to know as much about the magical artifact that now was a part of his being as possible.

"As you might remember, it's a class four neutrally aligned Logia. It's recorded name is 'Heart of the Stars' and it essentially is a mana reactor. What it means is that it keeps generating magical energy and shares it with whatever it is connected to. And when it had fused with your body, it had created a connection with your Linker Core."

"Is that good?" The young Potter asked.

"Yes, very much so." 'Doctor' Aoko replied. "The capacity of your Core is only slightly above average, but thanks to the Lost Logia here, as long as you don't throw higher-tier magics around like they are going out of style, you probably will never have to worry about running out of mana." Well, that sounded highly useful, Harry thought to himself. "And while we're on the topic of magic, how about we find what system you are leaning towards?" The red-haired woman asked then. Upon his nod, she added: "But before that, I'll take a sample of your blood. Analyzing it would take some time anyway."

"Oh!" The young Potter cried out involuntary as he was pricked somewhat painfully with a needle. But by the time he was ready to anything about it, 'doctor' Hoshido was already pulling the needle with his blood sample out of his left upper arm.

"Don't be such a baby." The warrant officer told him. "Anyway, let's get to working out your magic system." She said then as she walked into the pretty large empty area in one corner of her office. "Come here." As Harry walked up to her, she continued: "Do you know anything about the magic systems anyway?"

"Nope." The green-eyed teen said as he shook his head.

"Alright then." 'Doctor' Aoko said, entering her lecture mode. "Among the worlds the Bureau is working with, there are two main magical systems being used – Mid-Childan and Belkan ones – with their numerous derivations popping up here and there. Since I'm not feeling like giving a history lesson right now, let's just say that there _is_ a good reason why the practitioners of Belkan magic are quite rare these days and leave it at that..."

"Alright." Harry said with a nod: he could see that it indeed ought to be a long story. And if it was important to understanding the world he was going to become a part of, he could look that story up at a later date himself.

"These two systems..." The red-haired woman continued her lecture. "Have some distinctly-different magical circles associated with them, so unless you're dealing with an exceptionally-rare case of someone who had mastered both systems, you will be able to tell which one is used just by looking at the magical circles used." As Aoko took a step forward, her crimson magical circle came to life under her feet. "I myself and everyone else on this spaceship are the users of the Mid-Childan system. This system, while rather well-rounded, has the majority of its offensive spells as long-range shooting attacks." Harry nodded again, memorizing the information.

"And the Belkan system?" He asked then.

"Well, it's magical circle looks like this." 'Doctor' Hoshido said as a holographic display popped up in front of Harry, showing him a runic triangle with circles at the vertices and a bigger one, overlaid with a strange cross, in the center. "A good deal of the attacks under this system tend to be the short-range anti-personnel ones, but thinking that those are the only ones available within the Belkan system is a great mistake."

"I see..." The young Potter breathed out. Well, that made sense: if you wanted to win the war – and it looked like the magic here was used mainly for fighting – you needed to be able to perform rather well in all sorts of situations...

"Now then, let's finally get to determining what system you lean towards." Aoko said as she dismissed both the display in front of Harry and her magical circle under her feet. "You do know how to draw upon your magic, right?" She asked then. Harry only nodded in response. "Well, then do it." The red-haired woman commanded then.

Nodding again, the green-eyed teen concentrated. He hadn't tried to use his magic without wand, ever. And, truth to be said, he had grow so used to casting with that stick that he wasn't sure that he could do so without. But nevertheless he tried to draw as much of the magical energy as he could from within himself, from his Linker Core.

And, much to his surprise, doing so without a wand in his hands actually turned out to be easier than with it. The eight-points star under his feet appeared to be bigger and brighter than he remembered it to be the two times he had ever seen it before. That, and now it also had some larger runes inscribed inside it at its vertices. And, what's more, looking closer he could see the ghosts of two more 'stars' inside the main one, but those were too faint for him to see any details.

"Now that's something very interesting..." Aoko breathed out after a few long moments of silence. Indeed, the magical 'circle' under Harry's feet didn't come even close to matching those of either Mid-Childan or Belkan systems. It looked like something completely unique. "I guess I will leave the task of determining what your magic system is to the people at the HQ. We will be arriving there by lunch tomorrow anyway." She said finally.

"O-Okay..." The young Potter breathed out. Well, what else he was supposed to say here? The uneasy silence that settled in the 'doctor' Hoshido's office for a few seconds was then broken by a holographic display popping into existence in front of the red-haired woman.

"And here are the results of your blood test." She said while skimming through the data. "Hm... I can see the traces of some unidentified substances in here, but it doesn't look like they are harmful to you, so, I guess, it's OK." Even as she said that, she still made some notes in the file, probably to study the sample in more detail at a later time.

'_Those are likely the basilisk venom and the phoenix tears._' Harry thought to himself, recalling the 'battle' under the Hogwarts castle he had lived through at the end of his second and last year at that school. After all, what else could those 'unidentified substances' be? At least, no other possible candidates came to his mind... Once again the silence settled in the room. "Well..." The green-eyed teen said finally. "If there is nothing else, I think I should go back to my duties before sub lieutenant gets really angry at me for being such a lazy bum."

"Yeah." Aoko said. "I guess, I indeed have taken enough of your time." Nodding, the young Potter walked up to the chair where his clothes lay and began dressing...

**~/ *** \~**

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore barely made a step into his office after a long and rather tiresome morning at the Ministry for Magic, when his floo came to life as Molly Weasley's head appeared surrounded by the green flames.

"I'm coming through." The witch demanded. The Hogwarts headmaster had no idea what kind of emergency could cause her to seek him with such expedition, but it likely was something very very important. Otherwise she'd have resorted to owl post or something like that... Nodding, he lifted the wards over his fireplace to let the matriarch of the Weasley clan come in.

"What had happened, Molly?" He asked.

"Explain this!" The woman demanded as she pushed a piece of paper – not of a parchment everyone in the magical Britain was using, but of a honest to Merlin muggle paper – into his face. Picking the said sheet of paper out of Molly's hands, Dumbledore skimmed through it. Apparently, it was a letter Harry had sent to Ron about not coming to Hogwarts and moving away to an undisclosed location, and...

"Oh my!.." The aged warlock exclaimed as the message finally sank into his mind. If what the young Harry had said in this letter was indeed true, than... Heck, he wasn't even sure how to characterize such a situation properly. Hoping beyond hope that his the young Potter's trace could still be picked up, the Hogwarts headmaster rushed to a small table in the corner of his room that was cluttered with many silvery magical instruments.

Unfortunately, it looked like his hopes were in vain as not even a single of his monitoring devices was still working. The Boy Who Lived somehow managed to do what Albus believed to be impossible and completely disappeared, without leaving even a trace behind. And what was even more troubling, the device that was supposed to be showing the direction towards where the boy was,.. Its hand was pointing up towards the skies in the general direction of London.

Dumbledore had heard the muggle stories about abductions done by the aliens many times. But until this time he had believed them all to be pure fiction... Maybe it was time to change that opinion as nothing else could explain the strange last reading he had on this device. After all, to get out of its range while going in that direction one indeed needed to go into the space...

Suddenly feeling as old as he really was, the Hogwarts headmaster collapsed into his armchair. If his worst fears came to pass – and all things pointed towards the fact that they actually did – then young Harry was way out of his reach. Still, maybe not everything was lost yet... Phoenixes were known to be able to travel anywhere for a reason. If the green-eyed Potter was somehow still on Earth, then Fawkes surely would be able to reach him! So, the old warlock asked his fiery familiar to flash over to where the wayward teen was. Alas, the sorry note Fawkes sang told Dumbledore that even his phoenix couldn't get to Harry anymore.

"I'm still waiting!" Mrs. Weasley chose this very moment to remind the Hogwarts headmaster that she was still in his office and still waiting for an explanation. "What is the meaning of this letter, Albus?"

"Truth to be said, Molly, I don't know." The aged warlock replied, fixing his no longer twinkling eyes on those of the Weasley matriarch. "I honestly have no idea what's going on. I know that the recent events had made the life quite a bit harder for young Harry, but I would have never believed that he would choose to run away..."

"What do you mean, professor?" The plump witch asked.

"Well, you see, Molly, about a week ago, apparently, young Harry had suffered an unfortunate incident that made it really hard for him to cast magic. Even Garrick himself said that none of the wands at his shop would work for Mr. Potter." The Hogwarts headmaster explained. "And, because of that, no matter how much it pained me to do so, I had to tell him that until his condition improves, there is little Hogwarts can do for him in regards to his education..." He made a pause here. "Apparently I've said that a little too harshly, and unwittingly made young Harry believe that we don't want him anymore. He probably just ran away, though I'm not sure how he managed to escape my tracking devices – not even that cloak of his could fool all of them."

"B-But!.." The Weasley matriarch protested. "But surely he wouldn't have run away just like that. I'm sure someone had kidnapped him! And sent these letters to keep us from looking for him. Merlin, those bastards even took Harry's broom from him and sent it Ron! I don't believe Harry would have parted with it out of his own free will!" Well, the fact that the young Potter's broom was sent to the Weasleys certainly made the whole thing even more complicated, Albus thought.

"Have you checked it? Were there any curses on it?" He asked then.

"None that we could find ourselves." Molly replied. "Bill will come home tomorrow and we'll ask him to double-check. Merlin knows, that boy knows how to find even the nastiest of curses!" While it was clear that the witch didn't really approve her eldest son's career choice, she still believed him to be a highly-knowledgeable and very skilled curse-breaker.

"Do you want me to take a look at it as well?" The Hogwarts headmaster asked next.

"If you don't mind." Molly said. "We all know that your time is much valuable, professor." Albus shook his head at that.

"Be as it may, the life and well-being of a student takes precedence over anything else for me. I'm an educator first and Chief Warlock of Wizengamot only second... Though, if you don't mind, I'd rather have a few more minutes to rest my old bones. I'm not as young as I used to be anymore, and today certainly was an eventful day, even before your unexpected visit, Molly." He said.

"Of course, professor." The Weasley matriarch replied. "And thank you for your help. I'm sure we will have Harry back, safe and sound, very soon."

"I really hope you are right." The Hogwarts headmaster said with a sigh. "Let us hope that young Harry is alright, wherever he is, and that he will soon change his mind and come back to his friends."

**~/ *** \~**

Harry sighed softly as he placed the last of the food trays he had to wash tonight onto the rack. He really had no problems with this as he really owed these people for giving him a chance to use his magic again, when the wizarding Britain, apparently, gave up on him because he couldn't use a wand properly anymore. Helping them with these minor tasks was the least he could do for them...

And now that he was done for the evening, he was free to do anything he wanted. Provided that he didn't disturb or impede the actual crew in any way, of course. Not that he had any intentions to. Today was a tiresome day for him and he'd rather go to bed now – he was sure that sub lieutenant Jazz would never let him to lie in, no matter what... But before he could call it a day, the green-eyed teen thought, he still needed to feed Hedwig.

* * *

"Here you go, girl." The young Potter cooed as he fed the meat cuts to his owl. Apparently, she too found this alien food to be at least somewhat tasty, even if Harry himself had no idea about its origins. Only that it didn't come from Earth, or, as he should probably call it from now on, non-administered world 138.

Done with her meal, Hedwig tried to open the door of her cage with her beak, but couldn't do that as the green-eyed teen had locked it. After all, he was sure that the spacecraft's crew would not appreciate a live owl flying through the corridors. Too bad, the owl in question didn't quite agree with being incarcerated in her cage for however long it would take "Leto" to reach the TSAB HQ.

"Sorry, girl." The green-eyed tried to placate his owl. "But I can't let you out just yet... Don't worry, though, they promised we'd arrive to our new home soon. And, I'm sure, you'll be able to fly as much as you like there." That seemed to work somewhat as Hedwig stopped trying to force her way out of the cage. Though, she still looked highly discontent. Then she demonstratively turned around on her perch and, apparently, went to sleep.

With a heavy sigh, Harry walked up to his bed and lay down on it. He really didn't know what his life in this new world would be, but he still maintained a positive outlook: the magic, however different it now was, was still with him, and he was on the way to the place where the people will do their best to teach him how to wield it properly. And, judging by what 'doctor' Hoshido had told him about the central world of the confederation, Mid-Childa was a nice planet to live on. He really hoped that she wasn't wrong about that... With that thought in his mind, Harry drifted off into the land of dreams.

**~/ *** \~**

Dimensional space – also called 'the sea of dimensions' – was an interesting place. While it lacked any real features besides the ever-changing clouds of all possible colors here and there, it still was the world between worlds, the very core of the universe everyone lived in. And, according to 'doctor' Aoko, the TSAB headquarters were located somewhere deep withing it.

So, when he wasn't doing anything else – not that he really had that much free time, thanks to all of the jobs sub lieutenant Jazz had dumped on him – Harry found himself sitting by some porthole window, watching the colorful clouds of the dimensional space float by as the spaceship "Leto" carried him towards the Bureau's HQ. He tried imagining the looks those headquarters would have, but somehow he couldn't think of anything grand enough to befit the main office of such an inter-dimensional organization.

Well... He will see it with his own eyes soon enough, he guessed. After all, they were supposed to arrive there in just a little bit more than three hours, if what the red-haired scientist has told him was true. And, until then, all he could do was waiting...

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	5. At the headquarters

The fifth chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**chm01**, I've answered your review via PMs.  
**Impstar**, sorry, his learning to kick asses will start only somewhere between chapters 6 and 7. Or just in chapter 7...  
**serialkeller**, thank you, and fixed.  
**lordamnesia**, **Opinr**, **thunder18**, **karthik9**, **Penny is wise**, **Jose19**, **fellow**, **FateBurn**, **Ranmaleopard**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Guest**, **HellsMaji**, somewhat fixed by the contents of chapter 6, where he himself realizes this.  
**ultima-owner**, well, yeah. Though, the speed at which his mana recovers is still limited. He won't be able to throw nuke-level spells continuously. And given that the 'default' size of his core is not THAT big, some spells (**Ragnarok**, **Diabolic Emission** et al) might be entirely out of his league. Simply because he can't amass enough energy to fuel them at once.  
**The 10th Wand**, ah... wasn't it at least hinted in the AN to the previous chapter? But to make it explicit, Harry comes in contact with his Lost Logia almost exactly seventeen months before the conclusion of _**A's**_.  
**voidzzz**, as far as I can see it based on my own impression from anime and the data on wikia, magical circles in "_**Nanoha**_" are a visual effect happening when a mage/knight/whatever is drawing upon his or her mana extensively. And, if you notice, the circle is always the same no matter what spell is used (with two exceptions: summoning magic and group casting by Wolkenritter) - it is always either Mid-Childan circle, or Belkan triangle. With IS template and Eclipse star later on.  
**aliestrikehero**, considering that he will be 14 when Nanoha and co are 10... There are some problems with them being paired together. Thankfully, there are other ladies around for Harry to woo... One of them might even have silver hair and red eyes. ;)  
**Thracer**, Harry will always lose to Nanoha or Fate in a direct combat (he is a glass cannon), but should their fight somehow devolve into a battle of attrition, he will be the winner instead (he has a Logia-powered mana regeneration). So, all in all, he will be stuck somewhere around AA or AAA rank, while the aces are S+ or higher in _**StrikerS**_. As for the second part of your review... Well, not a panic, but he will realize that some manipulation had been used to make him join TSAB.

*** AN**: Finally, some characters canonical to "_**Nanoha**_"-verse make their appearance in the story. I'm sure everyone who had watched _**A's**_ knows who Gil Graham is. Mariel Atenza is a bit trickier, given her rather minor roles in the _**A's**_ and the sequels, but she is there. In particular, in _**A's**_, she was the one to report Nanoha's and Fate's devices requesting cartridge systems for themselves.

And to those noting peculiarities in my English - English is not my native language, and while I tend to believe that I know it sufficiently-well, I sometimes slip into using punctuation and sentence structures according to the rules of my native language.

* * *

**_Disclaimer_**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

_**Special thanks**_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter  
chapter V: At the headquarters**

The Time-Space Administration Bureau headquarters turned out to be even more impressive than Harry imagined them. It was a city-sized space station that looked like an irregular three-dimensional compass rose with a few incomplete rings surrounding it. And even though it appeared to be still under construction, it was still very very grandiose.

And it only became more and more grandiose in Harry's eyes as the spaceship "Leto" he was inboard of got closer and closer to this mountainous fortress of a space station. By now the headquarters were already taking the entirety of the sky he could see from his window and more, and it was still more than a couple of miles away. The green-eyed teen found it nigh-impossible to believe that something that big created by humans could really exist, magic or no magic...

* * *

While the metallic walls of the docks where "Leto" was parked lacked any interesting features – unless one found various equipment for space-battleship maintenance to be interesting – it was still hard to wrap one's mind around the fact that this fortress-like space station had internal docks. And not just a few of those either. The docks here could probably house entire fleets!

Harry was brought out of his thoughts about the hugeness of the Bureau headquarters when 'doctor' Aoko, who had somehow approached him unnoticed, made her presence known.

"Mr. Potter,.." She said, before somewhat unexpectedly also calling him by his first name. "...Captain Ducato and I are leaving the ship to give the counter admiral in charge of our fleet a report on our mission. Everyone else, and this includes you as well, is to stay inboard until captain dismisses you." The green-eyed teen nodded. This was kind of expected.

"Alright." He said.

"Anyway,.." The red-haired scientist continued: "Depending on how the things go up there in the office, you might end up transferred away before the day is over. Most likely to the Magitek Research Department on Mid-Childa, though there are other possibilities as well... That said, you are a very interesting person, Mr. Potter, it was a pleasure to work with you for these past two days. I hope we meet again some day." With those words, Aoko extended her hand. It took Harry's mind a few moments to catch up with what was going on, but once it happened, he accepted it and the two of them shook their hands. It was somewhat a strange feeling, to be treated like an adult, but he certainly liked it.

"T-Thank you, ma'am." The young Potter said then, but 'doctor' Hoshido merely waved her hand dismissively in response. She then turned on her heels and made a couple of step towards the transportation chamber, before stopping.

"One more thing, I've noticed that you appear to be, let's say, unfamiliar with computers." She said. Harry could only nod in response. He had, of course, seen a computer – how could he not when Dudley got one for his birthday this year? – but he had never touched one. "Then why don't you ask warrant officer Aoba to show you the basics, while you all are stuck in there?" Aoko asked then. "You know, that guy is "Leto"'s chief engineer and he is the one in charge of the navigation and sensory systems, he knows his stuff." And after a short pause, she added with a small smile: "And since you've become a small pet project of ours, we can't have you go into the big life completely unprepared, now can we?"

By the time Harry had mustered his words for a reply, 'doctor' Aoko Hoshido was already gone...

**~/ *** \~**

"Good day, counter admiral Graham!" Captain David Ducato of investigative spaceship "Leto" saluted as he entered his superior's office. Next to him, warrant officer Aoko Hoshido, who came along to help him with this task, did the same.

"At ease." The counter admiral said as he saluted back. Closing the numerous holographic displays with whatever work he had been doing until now, Gil Graham stood up from behind his table and walked up to the "Leto"'s captain and the two of them exchanged a handshake. "Have a seat." He said then as he invited them to the 'guest' part of his office that had a pair of comfortable sofas around a small table. "Tea? Coffee?" He asked once they all were seated.

"No, thank you, sir!" Both of his guests, replied simultaneously.

"Alright then." The counter admiral said. "I will take it that your most recent mission went without any major problems, despite running into a Lost Logia on the non-administered world 138." Captain Ducato nodded as he placed the printed version of his report onto the table.

"Yes, sir. The patrol went smoothly and we've not run into any troubles, though, there was a significant delay with our return due to the Lost Logia we've ran across. Locating and securing it took some unexpectedly-long time. Warrant officer Hoshido will give you more information about that." The red-haired scientist nodded as she added her own papers to those already present on the table.

"As was reported to you by captain thirteen days ago, a class four neutrally-aligned Lost Logia had been detected on the surface of the non-administered world 138." Aoko reported. "It then went silent for ten days, before reemerging again. We were then able to successfully locate and secure it then."

"I've heard from your earlier reports that the Logia has actually merged with a body of a local civilian." Counter admiral Graham commented.

"Yes, this is indeed so." 'Doctor' Hoshido said with a nod. "The said local is a thirteen years old boy by the name of Harry James Potter. He does not have proper magical training and his Linker Core appears to be underdeveloped because of that. Whether it is a genetic anomaly or the result of the interference by the Lost Logia, but it appears that his magic does not conform to the known systems. It was decided that the further tests should be conducted by the Magitek Research Department."

"A sound decision." Gil Graham agreed, while flipping through the printed version of her report, in particular, through the section that described this teen's magic and the 'circle' it manifested when drawn upon. He had to agree with the warrant officer here: that eight-pointed star indeed didn't look like anything that belonged either to Mid-Childan or to Belkan systems. "Did Mr. Potter agree to come with you willingly?" He asked then.

"Despite rough handling he had been subjected to in the beginning due to our false assumption of him being a part of some illegal group, he indeed came with us out of his own free will." Aoko said, before expanding upon it: "However, I believe it was mostly because we were the lesser of the two evils he was facing at the time, so to speak. I didn't manage to get much out of him, but it appears that coming in contact with the Lost Logia the way it had happened for him had destroyed his old life."

"I see..." Counter admiral Graham said. While not to such an extreme, it could be said that he himself had gone through something somewhat similar when he had saved a wounded TSAB mage some fifty years ago. Now, however, was not the time to delve into the ocean of memories... "So, what are your recommendations in handling this case? I don't think we've ever seen a human successfully merged with a Lost Logia without immediate negative effects."

"I'd recommend further tests to determine the properties and limitations of his system of magic and what effects does the Logia have on him." The red-haired scientist replied. "And once it was proven that he can safely handle serious magical exertions, his real training should be started. Someone who has the potential to use B-rank spells, possibly even A-rank ones, without running out of mana mustn't be ignored." The counter admiral nodded.

"It's too bad that this Mr. Potter is completely untrained, though..." He said dreamily after a short pause. "I'm sure, Chrono-kun wouldn't have minded a new training partner for himself..."

"Absolutely no, sir. Not until it is confirmed that whichever style of magic Mr. Potter is exhibiting, it can be safely and reliably controlled." Aoko protested. Gil Graham just waved his hand dismissively.

"Of course, of course. I know that quite well... It's just,.." He made a short pause before continuing: "I'm afraid that if young Chrono-kun continues training exclusively with Aria and Lotte, it might soon reach the point where it would start doing him more harm than good. And I absolutely can't let late Harlaown-dono down like that."

"Yes, sir." 'Doctor' Hoshido replied.

"Anyway,.." Counter admiral Graham continued meanwhile: "I believe we have deviated somewhat from the original topic of our discussion. Namely, what should we do with Mr. Potter until we deem him ready to enter our ranks." After a moment, he added: "So far, we've agreed that he should be placed into the care of Magitek Research Department." Both Aoko and captain Ducato nodded here. "And where he'll go from there... Well, that surely should depend on what strengths and weaknesses he displays during the tests and the initial steps of his training. If what you say about his potential ability to cast mid-level spells indefinitely is true, I'd like to eventually have him in the Dimensional Navy. Of course, if it turns out that other branches of the Bureau might suit him better,.."

"Yes, sir." The other two mages agreed.

"Then it is settled." The counter admiral summarized. "I shall give the Research Department a call now. They had been notified that I might be sending your, shall we say, findings their way, when you first reported locating a Lost Logia on the non-administered world 138. If they still have someone on stand by – as they should – we can have Mr. Potter on his way to Mid-Childa by the dinner time." And while no man of the "Leto"'s crew would admit it out aloud, having a civilian aboard of a military patrol ship was troublesome. After all, sub lieutenant Jazz kept piling those jobs on the kid not because he was a sadist – it was to keep Mr. Potter as busy and out of their ways as possible.

"Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!" 'Doctor' Aoko and captain Ducato chorused.

"Now then,.." Counter admiral Graham continued: "According to your reports, your vessel is in a good condition and there is no need for extraordinary repairs." The captain of spaceship "Leto" nodded. "However, given that high-threat criminal Jail Scaglietti continues to elude our forces and, according to some reports, began building his own ones now, it might not be a bad idea to have some additional equipment installed inboard of "Leto". Some of his suppliers and agents might prove themselves to be confrontational, should you accidentally run across them." He said.

"Are you sure about this, sir?" Captain David Ducato asked. "Given the shortage of resources the Dimensional Navy is still experiencing after _that incident_, shouldn't the other vessels, the ones that go into less peaceful territories, receive these upgrades first?" As his superior didn't answer this question, the Nick Fury-lookalike sighed. "Alright, I will consider this, but I still need to think for a little while before I can give you my final decision, sir."

"Of course, captain." Gil Graham said. "Now, if there is nothing else to be discussed right now, let me summon the representatives of the Research Department here." Upon the nods from the two officers, the counter admiral summoned a holographic display and initiated a video call to the Magitek Research Department's main office on Mid-Childa...

**~/ *** \~**

Given how easily warrant officer Aoba was convinced to give him a crash course in using computers, Harry strongly suspected 'doctor' Aoko's hand in it. But, of course, there was no way for him to prove this... Anyhow, his first lesson in informatics so far was going pretty well. Not that there was anything difficult in navigating through the file system and editing some text files... And "Leto"'s chief engineer was about to start the green-eyed teen's next lesson, when they were interrupted by sub lieutenant Jazz.

"Potter." The bald officer said. "Go to your room and pack get to packing your things. The men from the Magitek Research Department will be there in half an hour to pick you up. You better be ready by then." And not even carrying about whether the teenaged Earthling with give him an answer according to the protocols or not, Jazz walked away.

"Well... It looks like it's time for me to go." Harry said to his 'teacher'. "Thank you for the lesson, warrant officer." Aoba just waved his hands dismissively.

"Don't mention it, kid. It's not like I have much else to do right now anyway." That was probably at least a partial lie as "Leto" was in docks, but, whatever. Thanking the man again for his lesson, the young Potter headed to his room. There weren't many things he needed to pack, but, like sub lieutenant Jazz had said, he better be ready by the time his new minders arrived. First impressions were important after all...

* * *

Twenty five minutes later, Harry dragged his trunk and two suitcases as well as Hedwig in her cage to the 'parade' entrance of the spaceship that had housed him for the last two days. Of course, at the moment the said entrance – or exit, as the case might be – was blocked by sub lieutenant Jazz, who was making sure that no one sneaked in or out without his captain's approval.

"Well, at least you can move fast when you need to, brat." The man said as he crossed his arms on his chest. "But you're still not leaving until the representative from RD arrives." Shrugging in response, the green-eyed teen placed his luggage on the floor and leaned against the wall. He needn't have waited for long as those representatives arrived to the docks maybe just five minutes later.

The group of two was led by a thirty-something years old brown-eyed woman with rather short disheveled blonde hair. Her clothes consisted of brownish uniform of TSAB Ground Forces with a lab coat thrown over it. She was also carrying a few official-looking papers in her hands. Following her a few steps behind was a somewhat-shy girl with short dirty-green hair and yellow eyes behind round glasses. She appeared to be just a couple of years older than Harry himself was, and the uniform under her own lab coat suggested that she, unlike her boss, belonged to Dimensional Navy instead...

The older woman then approached sub lieutenant Jazz and, after giving him a salute – with her companion doing the same – handed the papers she was carrying over to him. The bald man returned the salute, before accepting those documents. He then took his time to read through them, but, eventually, he signed them in a few places, before returning the half of them back to the blond woman.

"Brat!" Jazz called out, even if the said teen was already looking in his direction. "These two are warrant officer Kyoko Chidori and cadet Mariel Atenza from the Magitek Research Department. They will be taking you to Mid-Childa."

"Yes, sir." Harry replied, doing his best not to show it on his face that he'd rather not be addressed in such a way in front of the people whose care he'll be in in the foreseeable future. No, those two probably already knew his name, but still... He'd rather be addressed to as 'Mr. Potter' or something along those lines instead of just 'brat' the first time he met them.

"You must be Mr. Potter then." The older of the two RD representatives, Kyoko Chidori, said as she turned to look at him. Harry nodded. She then turned to her apparent protege. "Mary, our shuttle will be ready to leave for Mid-Childa in two hours. Can you entertain Mr. Potter until then? I still need to finish my conversation with Aoko-sempai."

"Y-yes, ma'am!" The green-haired girl nodded and then made a few steps towards the young Earthling, who already had picked his belongings up. "S-shall we go then?" She asked him then.

"A-Alright." Harry replied after a second or two. The girl – Mariel – gave him a small smile. Then she turned around and began walking at a rather slow pace. After a moment of just standing there, the young Potter hurried after her. Well, hurried as much as someone with just two hands and four bulky and heavy pieces of luggage can hurry...

* * *

"Ano... Aren't those things heavy?" Mary asked as the two of them were about to leave the docks and enter the administration part of the TSAB headquarters. "I can help you if you want."

"Yeah, can you carry her for me?" The young Potter asked as he lifted Hedwig's cage a little higher. He wasn't about to entrust the trunk with his personal things or his suitcases with his seed money – well, the goods he would use to get those – to her just yet. The green-haired girl nodded and took the cage from him. "Thank you." Harry said while rearranging his hold the rest of his luggage into a more comfortable one.

"That's no trouble for me." She replied cheerfully, while raising the cage she was now carrying to her eyes' level. "Your bird is beautiful." Upon hearing that, Hedwig opened one of her yellow eyes to look at the speaker, before promptly going back to sleep. "What's she?" The question surprised the young Potter for a moment, but then he remembered that he was in what could as well be the center of an interstellar confederation. The chances were, Mariel was from a different planet than him, and her home world had no owls living on it.

"Her name is Hedwig and she's a polar owl." Harry replied helpfully, making the girl adopt a surprised expression on her face.

"You lived behind the polar circle?" She asked. "You look like someone from the more temperate zones..." Then she mumbled something about wishing she got it right and didn't even up embarrassing herself because she wasn't very good at biology and general planetary geography.

"No, I didn't. A friend of mine gifted her to me on my eleventh birthday." The young Potter replied.

"Oh." Mariel breathed out. There was about half a minute of silence then, before the green-haired girl spoke again: "Say,.. There is still quite a bit of time before our shuttle will be ready. Wanna go get something to eat?" Well, Harry thought, he wouldn't mind having some midday snack, but...

"Would it be alright? I don't have your money ...yet." Mary shook her head.

"Don't worry about that, as long as we don't order anything outrageous, the Bureau will compensate the expenses. Especially since they are the ones who want you here." That certainly made some sense...

"Well, alright then." The young Potter said. "Lead the way."

* * *

After flipping through the menus of some cafe Mary had chosen, they both had settled for some tea and desserts. And a few strips of raw meat for Hedwig, of course...

"So..." The green-eyed girl began. "Since it looks like we will be working together for at least a little while, how about tell each other a few things about ourselves?" Harry nodded: that sounded quite reasonable. Especially since he indeed would be stuck in some Magitek Research Department's laboratory in the foreseeable future.

"Alright." He said. After a small pause he continued. "Well... If you have seen my file, you should know that I'm Harry Potter, and I was born on Earth. Though, they tell me, it's not the only world that goes by that name, so I should call my home planet 'non-administered world 138' instead." He paused, thinking about what he should say next... Him companion, though, decided that it was now her turn to begin introducing herself properly.

"My name is Mariel Atenza, though everyone calls me Mary, and I was born and raised up on Mid-Childa. I wanted to go into the Dimensional Navy, but I'm not really that good of a mage... My talents are in hardware maintenance, programming and research. So I got scouted into the Research Department by Kyoko-sensei. Now I know that I want to become a great Device Meister, just like her!" She said cheerfully.

So, she wanted to be a wand-maker, Harry translated into the terminology he was more used to. After all, the devices – as far as 'doctor' Aoko had explained him – were the technological foci used to assist mage in casting spells and regulating his or her mana flow. Many of them, being magical computers, also had other functions, such as voice and video recording, language translation, communication modules and whatever else one could think of.

"That's good." The young Potter commented. "I kinda learned about this whole mage thing just a couple of days ago, when "Leto" picked me up. So I have no idea what kind of profession I want to pursue in the future." Well, while not really averse to the idea of becoming a part of military, magical or otherwise, Harry indeed wasn't sure whether he actually wanted that or not.

"I'm sure, you will find something that you like doing." Mary said. "There are so many professions out there, one of them surely will be just meant for you. Who knows, maybe you will even become a Device Meister too!" The dark-haired teen just shook his head at that thought. While his lessons in informatics with warrant officer Aoba weren't hard, he didn't think he was good enough to actually be capable of programming the devices... The two of them continued their small talk for a little while, until it was time for them to head for the shuttle that would take them to Mid-Childa...

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	6. Arriving to Mid-Childa

The sixth chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**lordamnesia**, alas, science will mostly start the next chapter. The same goes for Harry's magical training as well, **Impstar**.  
**Ranmaleopard**, **Opinr**, **Jose19**, **FateBurn**, **ultima-owner**, **geetac**, **serialkeller**, **thunder18**, **art9000**, **karthik9**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**DalekDavros**, Deathly Hallows as Lost Logia?.. In my opinion, only the stone has a chance of being classified as one - it does have the power to call the spirits of the dead back into world of living. Even then, it would be level 5 or something like that... The cloak is just an optical camouflage. As great as it may be, it is nothing really special in terms of power or even utility - _**Wide Area Search**_ will penetrate it without any doubts... And the wand? It isn't even really confirmed to be any better than a normal wand, why would it be good enough to be called Lost Logia?  
**Lethum**, it isn't yet introduced to TSAB forces at this point. And it won't be until December 0065. Right now is August 0064. But when it becomes available, well, who knows...  
**SonicAnime2010**, replied to you via PM.  
**aliestrikehero**, need I remind you that the Aces were 9 or 10 during the conclusion of the Book of Darkness incident? And while I don't have problems with pairing Hayate (I'm a supporter of Nano/Fate and would rather not break it) with Harry, the problem is in how Harry will be viewing them. The difference of four years at their ages is a huge one, and it will take a lot of time and work for Harry to stop viewing her as a child. Especially given that some more mature options will be around.  
**Penny is wise**, I will give you the spoiler that Harry's device will have the active form of a clawed gauntlet.

*** AN**: I know, I'm going to take a lot of flak for this chapter, mostly because it will yet again be a transition one. But, please, bear with it as the next one will finally contain some action as well as Harry learning some actual Nanoha-style magic. And, of course, he will finally be getting his device.

* * *

**_Disclaimer_**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

_**Special thanks**_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter  
chapter VI: Arriving to Mid-Childa**

Looking from space, the planet of Mid-Childa actually looked somewhat similar to Earth: the oceans were crystal-blue and the landmasses were mostly green-and-brown; even the ice capes at the poles looked a bit like those found on Earth. The contours of the continents and a few extra moons, though, were a reminder to the green-eyed teen that he was looking at a completely different world.

As the shuttle entered the atmosphere and began approaching the surface and the young Potter got a bird-eye's view of the of the planet's capital, Cranagan. It was a huge megalopolis many times bigger than London, dominated by a towering building of Bureau's central office for this world and the skyscrapers surrounding it. The rest of the city also didn't really look like anything that could be found on Earth either... It was too clean and full of crystal spires to be something that could have existed on Harry's home world.

And while the green-eyed teen tried to see as much of the city as he could through the porthole, the shuttle continued on its ways towards the towers occupied by the TSAB offices – apparently, the Magitek Research Department was located somewhere there. Indeed, by the time the shuttle passed through the barrier surrounding the whole complex, Harry could see the department's emblem on the side of one of the lesser towers. However, instead of flying directly there, like the young Potter had almost expected it to, the shuttle was directed to a small airfield sitting next to the base of the monstrous central tower.

"Alright." Kyoko Chidori said as the shuttle began landing. "Considering that the last few days must have been very stressful for you, Mr. Potter, you will be given three days to settle in properly." Harry nodded, happy that he wasn't expected to plunge into 'work' right away. "However, before you can rest for tonight, you should get a proper identity card." The green-eyed teen nodded again: it was unlikely that these people would readily accept any documents from an non-administered world like Earth. Not that he had even those...

"Before going to the Migration Services, if that is possible, I'd like to drop my things off somewhere." The young Potter said, hoping beyond hope that he won't have to tow his luggage with him to wherever he'll be getting his documents; today had been a long day for him, and he was tired, so cut him some slack. He was a bit surprised, when the blond warrant officer nodded.

"Of course. Shall we go have you lodged in first then?" She asked then, just as the shuttle they were in touched the airfield.

* * *

It came as a small surprise for Harry that the Magitek Research Department had its own hostel with the rooms for the guests or the personnel that didn't have their own apartments or houses. But he certainly was glad about that as the rooms there were fantastic. The one he will be living in for the time being was probably as big as the entire first floor at Number 4! Even by just looking around, he could already tell that he would absolute love living in it.

However, since he was still expected to get his identity card tonight, the young Potter had no time to explore the room right now. Thus, after dropping his things off there – and opening the cage to let Hedwig out, of course – Harry once again found himself following 'doctor' Kyoko Chidori through the huge administrative complex that the Bureau's central office was...

The Migration Services was located in another lesser tower on the lower floors. And knowing just how big of an organization the TSAB was, the young Potter was quite surprised to see no queues there. Then again, it was way past eight in the evening by the local time, so... And while he was busy looking round the high-tech hall, 'doctor' Chidori exchanged a few words with one of the clerks, which ended with the said clerk inviting the green-eyed teen into a cubicle-like office.

First thing first, Harry was told to place his hands on a special device, which, apparently, took his fingerprints as well as his magic signature. And only when no previous records of him were found withing the Bureau's archives, the actual process of creating a new identity card for him began. He was asked a number of standard questions, like his name, home world and date of birth. During the latter one he had slipped up a little and he to be corrected by warrant officer Chidori, who pointed it out that the administered worlds used a different calendar and, thus, his year of birth would be 0051 and not 1980 A.D.. The final question was about his current occupation. And here the blond-haired scientist gave an answer in his place: according to her, he was a 'Civilian Collaborator to the Magitek Research Department of the TSAB'... That certainly sounded better than a 'lab rat', the young Potter noted.

Once all of the clerk's questions were answered, Harry's identity card was created. It was indeed a card and looked not quite different from a driving license card the green-eyed teen had seen in his uncle's wallet. It contained his photo, full name, date and place of his birth and a chip, which obviously held the rest of his personal information.

"While recovering your ID card isn't exactly a hard thing to do, you still should take a good care of it and you better never lose it." 'Doctor' Kyoko commented as she walked Harry back to his room at the RD's hostel. The young Potter had nodded in acknowledgment of that, while thanking the woman for helping him in obtaining the said identity card...

**~/ *** \~**

The next morning the green-eyed teen woke up quite early; not that it was a problem for him as he was used to getting up at the crack of dawn... Hedwig's cage was empty, meaning that the snowy owl was still out, exploring the new world and hunting for her own meal.

After going through his morning routine, Harry busied himself with laying his possessions out into the various wardrobes and cabinets found in his room as he waited for someone to show up and give him a tour around the department's facilities. After all, he at the moment he still had no idea where the cafeterias or the laboratories and lecture halls were.

It was around fifteen minutes to eight in the morning when someone had knocked on his door. And opening the said door, the young Potter found himself face to face with Mariel, who looked like she'd rather spend another couple of hours in her bed – apparently, the green-haired glasses-wearing girl was not a morning person. The two of them exchanged the greetings and then Harry found himself following his guide through the corridors as she led him towards some cafeteria so that they could grab a bite for their breakfast.

They were soon joined there by 'doctor' Kyoko and her other apprentice, a girl with short brown hair and somewhat reddish-brown eyes, who went by the name of Amy Limietta. Apparently, she was also Mary's sempai. Aside from the round of introductions, though, the meal was spent mostly in silence.

"Mr. Potter,.." The blond scientist said as they were leaving the cafeteria. "I know, I've promised you three days off, but I would still like it if you dropped by my office sometime today. There is a test I would like you to try and pass – and depending on your results, I might assign you some supplementary courses." Harry raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of a test?" He asked, curious about what kind of an experiment 'doctor' Chidori wanted to run on him. Actually, scratch that, the wording of a request made it sound like she was going to examine his knowledge or something like that.

"As might already know, the spells of both Mid-Childan and Belkan systems is something that can be described through mathematical formulas. And the chances are, whatever system your magic is, it will be the same." The warrant officer answered. "Thus, I want to see how good you are in algebra and analytic geometry. Informatics and programming too, as you will undoubtedly find them useful once we get you a device." Harry nodded. If being good in those subjects was helpful in casting spells, learning them made sense.

"Alright." He said. And, deciding that the sooner he started those tests, the sooner it all will be over, he added: "Lead the way."

* * *

As it turned out, Harry had been a bit too optimistic about how quickly he could pass those tests... He had utterly failed the mathematics one – then again, according to 'doctor' Chidori, a good deal of it would be considered university-level material on his home world. Something that a thirteen-years-old like him wouldn't know a thing about under normal circumstances.

And his test in computer science went only marginally better. Thanks to the introduction lesson that warrant officer Aoba of the investigative spaceship "Leto" had taught him, he managed to solve the first couple of tasks... But there were fifty of those in total, with the final ones being so hard that the young Potter had not a single idea how someone might be capable of solving them at all, much less within a very limited time.

At least, the blond scientist whose care he was under didn't seem to be too unhappy about his lack of knowledge about the sciences that apparently drove Magitek. That, of course, didn't mean that she wasn't going to do her damn best to rectify the situation: by the time she finished sorting out his tests, Harry was given a whole stack of thick tomes that he was supposed to study the higher mathematics and computer science theories from. And, as an extra load, there also was a couple of the books on the administrated worlds' laws added into the mix.

While no one expected him to learn everything in those books by the end of the week or something like that, the young Potter had no doubts in his mind that his self-study will cut into his free time significantly. Oh well... At least, it looked like the theories discussed in those tomes would really help him in understanding and controlling his 'new' magic...

**~/ *** \~**

Now that he began settling down on this world which would be his new home in the foreseeable future, Harry finally found some time to look back and think about the events of the past few days that had altered his life oh so much.

And one thing that he noticed almost immediately was the fact that "Leto"'s crew had more or less forced him into leaving the Earth and aligning himself with the Bureau. This made the young Potter angry, but only for a little while as he soon came to a conclusion that he would have went with them even if they hadn't resorted to those manipulations. The TSAB was indeed the only place that could reasonably provide him with both the protection from those seeking to use his Lost Logia for their own nefarious ends and could give him the knowledge of how to access and use his new magic properly.

If he were to be angry at the "Leto"'s crew for something, then it would be the apparent lack of regret for rough-handling him on the part of the privates and sub lieutenant Jazz. Neither of those three had said as much as simple 'sorry' for treating him like a war criminal when they first captured him in Burgess park. And while warrant officer Aoko Hoshido too didn't express any regret about those events, she hadn't inflicted any such abuse on him, thus...

Thinking a little further, the green-eyed teen came to a conclusion that he himself wasn't sinless either. For one, he hadn't gifted Hermione with anything whereas Ron was now the new owner of his – quite expensive – Nimbus 2000 broomstick. He really really should have sent the bushy-haired witch something to show her just how much he valued their friendship. And not owning anything of worth at the time was no excuse: he could have just bought her something! Alas, now it was way too late to fix that mistake. Hopefully, she will find it in herself to forgive him, should they ever meet again.

And while Hermione and Ron had been his closest friends, they most definitely weren't his only ones. There was Neville and the entire quidditch team. And he got them nothing as well. Even worse, he hadn't even told them that he was leaving! He really hoped that Oliver Wood won't commit a suicide when he discovers that his team's star seeker was nowhere to be found – knowing how much of a quidditch fanatic that guy was, one just couldn't dismiss such a possibility.

Nope, Harry thought as he shook his head, he had shown himself to be an awful friend and comrade... But, at least, he now knew about that and could do his best not to repeat such mistakes in the future.

**~/ *** \~**

On the last of his three free days, Harry decided that it was the time for him to finally visit the local bank and convert the precious metals and gems he had bought from Gringotts into the local currency. And 'doctor' Kyoko was kind enough to agree to accompany him there. Though that might also be because she was simply interested in what he had up his sleeve as he, without any doubts, was an interesting specimen for her...

The blond scientist actually took him to the central bank of Mid-Childa, which, rather unsurprisingly, was located within the same administrative complex as the local TSAB headquarters: those formidable magical defenses definitely would increase the bank's security... And while its building wasn't a crystal spire reaching towards the skies, it was still very much impressive. Definitely more so than the rickety-looking marble structure that was the Gringotts bank in Diagon alley.

And since they got there during the business hours, the bank was quite packed with people. However, these people weren't really standing in the lines to one teller or another. No, instead, they picked a coupon with their queue number from a machine and waited in the lounge section of the atrium till some teller was ready to serve them... The tellers themselves also seemed to have specializations and none of them was seen carrying out absolutely all possible services to the bank's clients. Which, considering how many various services the bank offered, was quite understandable.

Anyhow, since no one else seemed to be selling precious metals or gems at the moment, Harry needn't have waited for long, before some teller at the far end of the hall was ready to do business with him. From there, the green-eyed teen was led into one of the relatively small rooms attached to the bank's main hall – the deal was about large sums of money and had to be made in private. 'Doctor' Kyoko, whose charge he was, followed him in there.

"I would like to sell these and deposit the resulting money." The young Potter said as he placed both his suitcases onto the counter and unlocked them. Then he unlocked the smaller steel boxes that were inside of them, finally showing the bars of precious metals and the gems he was selling to the teller. The said man appeared to be quite surprised to see such riches in the hands of someone who was barely a teenager. And so was warrant officer Chidori.

"If those are indeed real, you can get a lot of money for them, Mr. Potter." She commented, before adding in her mind: '_Probably about as much as I've earned during the last seven years..._' No, she wasn't jealous of her charge! Absolutely not!

"May I inquire where you've gotten these from, mister?" The teller asked, apparently wondering about the origins of all these precious metals and gems.

"Those were legally bought from a bank on the non-administered world 138 using local money." Harry answered the question. Then he turned his head to look at the 'doctor' Kyoko and elaborated: "Apparently my father was from a small but rich noble family. However, both he and my mother had died when I was fifteen months old and since I had no other relatives alive, I was sent to live with my aunt. She and her family, however, despised my father and so I haven't learned about the inheritance he left to me until recently." The young Potter explained.

"...I see." The blond scientist replied after a moment of silence.

"These bars of gold and platinum are of surprisingly high quality." The teller stated with a little bit of surprise in his voice once the machine finished analyzing them – apparently, some people thought that the non-administered worlds were all stuck in Stone Age or something like that. A few moments later, another scanner confirmed that the gems also were the real thing.

And since the bank had no feasible ways of determining whether these bars of precious metals and gems had really been bought legally or not, they had no other option but to believe the young Potter's word. Thus, they were going to buy them. And considering the prices on the market... the teen was going to be quite a rich bastard!

"And you said, you wanted to deposit the money you are going to earn?" The teller asked then.

"Yes." Harry replied with a nod. "And since I don't have one there already, I'll need an account too." As it was explained to him, all of the information regarding one's accounts could, among other things, be stored within the identity card. But since that sounded way too much like placing all of his eggs into the same basket, the young Potter opted for a separate card instead.

He'll probably have to transfer some of his money to different banks as well for some extra financial safety, but that could be handled at a later date...

"I will need you to fill these forms if you want to open an account." The teller said as he handed Harry a few documents and a pen. Filling the forms did take some time, but once the green-eyed Earthling was done with that, the rest of the account-creation process went quite fast. For a few moments, the young Potter even wondered how could it be so quick, but then he realized that his money weren't physical yet, just some numbers stored in the computers, and as such, they didn't require a vault or anything like that...

**~/ *** \~**

"Alright, Mr. Potter." Warrant officer Chidori said. They finished the first batch of tests for today a few minutes ago, and now it was the time to discuss their results... Harry, who was now sitting across the table from the blond scientist, nodded, interested in what she was going to say. "First of all, I can say that Aoko-sempai had been correct and the pattern of your magic indeed doesn't correspond with either Mid-Childan or Belkan systems. It actually appears to belong to a separate magic system, the one which has no mentions in the Bureau's archives."

"And what does that mean?" The young Potter asked.

"Well, for one, until we're completely sure that there will be no violent reactions should your magic come in contact with more conventional spells, whatever magical training you will be doing, it will be done under supervision, and separately from other TSAB trainees." She replied. "However, before that, there is a small problem of your Linker Core to be fixed. Right now it appears to be not completely developed yet. Thus, right now, extensive usage of mana might cause you health problems." The blond woman made a short pause, before continuing: "Don't worry about that, though. There are special exercises designed for the purpose of developing one's Linker Core. And if you keep doing them properly, in a month or two you should be totally ready to begin your proper magical training."

"That's nice to hear." Harry replied. "What would those exercises be?" He asked then, eager to learn about something that would fix the apparent problem with his magical core.

"I'll get to that in a moment." 'Doctor' Chidori responded. "There is still one other thing that we should discuss before that." There was a short pause, before she continued: "Namely, the Lost Logia in your, shall we say, possession. Don't worry, like Aoko-sempai had said, it's no danger to you. Even if you say it gets warm when you draw upon your mana. That effect actually happens because your Core isn't fully developed yet. Once it can properly process the immense amounts of mana the Logia offers to it, the flow of energy will stabilize and you won't be experiencing any discomfort when drawing upon magic anymore." The young Potter nodded.

"Alright." He said then, rather impatient to finally learn the exercises that would set him onto the way to becoming a proper mage by fixing his underdeveloped Linker Core.

"Well,.." Warrant officer Chidori began. "Now, onto the exercises you'll be doing. The first one would be..." And she began explaining the technique of stimulating one's Core which, while normally used to accelerate the recovery of magic in someone who had suffered a serious Core damage, could also speed up the development of a young, immature core.

And it was just the first exercise...

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	7. Of Magic and Devices

The seventh chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**chm01**, truth to be said, I haven't really given it a thought. And isn't it way too unique to even have a separate name for itself, instead of being identified by its user? But if you have some ideas, I'm all ears.  
**FateBurn**, **lordamnesia**, **celf**, **karthik9**, **Sieses Detkrah**, **Opinr**, **Ranmaleopard**, **thunder18**, **Penny is wise**, **ultima-owner**, **Shadowsmage**, **dorfdel**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Jose19**, prophecy will eventually catch up with him... Or not really. Based on the current sketches for the future plot, he will eventually have his own reasons to seek out wizards and trade a service for service with them. As for romantic pairings, those will have to wait a bit, but Harry will have a few girls interested in him (yes, there will be straight - or at least bi - girls in my rendition of _**Nanoha**_-verse!). Who those girls are will be a secret for now. ...Though given what I've written so far in my author notes, you should be able to guess one of them.  
**Impstar**, **serialkeller**, this chapter covers the first part of Harry's training. So, why don't you see what I have in store yourself?  
**SonicAnime2010**, this chapter end in the early February 0065 and Amy is being transferred to "Athra" offscreen just after that. She still has enough time to show for the events of the original anime, which takes place in spring to early summer of 0065.

*** AN**: First of all, this is the last prearranged chapter that I have. In other words, from now on the updates won't be happening as often. I will try to write at least a chapter a week, but no real promises there... At least I have an idea where this story will be going within the next four arcs - once again, special thanks to **Lupine Horror** for being my sounding board - so there will be no writer blocks of "I don't know what to write" in the foreseeable future. Other things, however, may impede me. The real life being the most generous in giving me problems.

Also, regarding the Deathly Hallows as Lost Logia... Alright, I will concede that the wand might qualify as well, though being just more powerful than your average wand doesn't really sound like a proper justification to me. And the cloak - not degrading with age - is NOT a Logia by their proper definition. But as it comes as a part of a set with the other two Hallows...

Now, onto the contents of this chapter... Major Fern Corrado actually is a canon character, even if she appears only in _**StrikerS**_ supplementary manga. There, in a flashback (which happens during her meeting with adult!Fate) we see her beating both Fate and Nanoha at once, supposedly without taking a single hit. Granted, the girls had been ten at the time... And no, major Corrado won't be a single-chapter character; she will make her appearance again, probably in chapter IX.

* * *

**_Disclaimer_**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

_**Special thanks**_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter  
chapter VII: Of Magic and devices**

It had been seven weeks since Harry began doing the exercises to speed up the development of his Linker Core. And, even without proper access to the data continuously collected by 'doctor' Chidori during the tests, the young Potter could still see just how much of a progress he was making.

Previously, his magical circle was just a single eight-points star with runes inscribed inside it at its vertices, and some barely-visible ghosts of two more 'stars' inside it. Now, in addition to the outer 'star', he could clearly see the middle one, which too had inscribed runes, but only at the four of its vertices instead of all eight. The inner 'star' – which for whatever reason looked more like a compass rose than a star like the outer two – was still a bit blurry, but...

Anyhow, his magical circle now looked mostly complete and the chances were, his Linker Core was approaching its maturity. And warrant officer Chidori seemed to be of the same opinion, though, in her case, it was based not on a mere visual effect, but on the data she kept collecting from various sensors she used to measure his progress.

With the today's battery of tests was over, the young Potter headed back to the woman's office for the discussion of the results. Of course, he changed into his normal clothes before that as the body-fitting suit she had him wearing while in her laboratory was hardly the most appropriate set of clothes for a anything outside the said laboratory's walls.

"Alright, Harry." The blond scientist, who was already sitting behind her table, said as the green-eyed Earthling finally joined her in the office. She waited for him to sit down in one of the guests' chairs, before continuing: "Your Linker Core had progressed nicely towards its maturity, and while I'd say it's a bit too early to stop with the exercises, you're probably ready to start your real magical training."

"Thank you, sensei." The young Potter said with a small bow. 'Doctor' Kyoko merely waved her hand dismissively in response to that.

"We shall start your lessons tomorrow. For the time being, the laboratory should be enough for that." She continued. "As for today... Why don't you take a day off and rest?" Harry nodded, before asking:

"Does this also mean that I will be getting my device soon?"

"Probably." Warrant officer Chidori replied. "Right now we still know very little about this magic system you are exhibiting, not enough to customize or reprogram a device for your use. And if you try using one with default settings, then, I'm afraid, some potentially serious issues may arise during the actual casting. We'd rather avoid that." A small pause later, she added: "Don't worry, though, once we've studied the properties of your magic sufficiently, we will get you some really cool device."

"Thank you." The green-eyed teen said with a nod. While he was more than just eager to start his magical training, he had seen what happens when someone tried to use an ill-fitted device a couple of times. The results weren't pretty... And he'd rather avoid spending any time at the medical bay simply because he was too eager to train himself into a proper mage.

* * *

The next morning Harry arrived to the laboratory as usual, though in much higher spirits as today would be the first lesson in actual magic. Kyoko Chidori was already waiting for him there, opting to go down into the test chamber instead of staying in the control room for once. Though, she still wore her usual clothes: the Ground Forces brown uniform with a lab coat thrown over it.

"I suppose, I should start your magical lessons with a long and boring lecture that would span over at least two days,.." The blond scientist began. "But there are better things to do than that, and given how unique your magic is, at least a third of the points from that lecture would be invalidated anyway." Taking a breath she continued: "Thus, I will limit myself to a mere warning: until it is confirmed that your magic is controllable and is of no danger to yourself and those around you, you will be allowed to practice only under supervision. Either by myself, or by a certified instructor from Tactical Corps. And if you are caught breaking this rule..." 'Doctor' Chidori didn't finish her threat, but after knowing her for almost two months, Harry had no doubts that his punishment will be most severe.

"Yes, ma'am!" The young Potter replied. After a small pause the blond woman nodded, apparently satisfied with his answer for the moment.

"Alright then." She said as a big holographic display manifested itself next to her. On this display Harry could see a number of relatively-simple equations – simple enough that he could reliably and quickly solve them in his mind, despite being far from done with his studies of higher math. "These are the equations that define the '**Guiding light**' spell." 'Doctor' Chidori said as a small ball of greenish light appeared on the palm of her hand. "It's one of the simplest spells out there. It's also one of the two known spells that have the same equations within both Mid-Childan and Belkan magic systems representing them." She made a pause, as if preparing to ask a question. Which she just did: "Now, Harry, can you tell me, why I chose this spell as the first one to teach you?"

"Well..." The green-eyed teen began. "It's apparently very simple, so, something you'd be teaching to someone who had just started learning magic." Kyoko nodded, however the expression on her face was telling that she still expected more from him. After thinking for a bit, Harry added: "And since it is the same for both Mid-Childan and Belkan systems, you are hoping that it would also work for me without any need of alteration." The blond scientist nodded again.

"Indeed." She confirmed. "Since the chances are, it will work fine despite the ...uniqueness of your magic, it is the best spell for you to begin with. That, and it is also the best spell to use as a benchmark in understanding the properties of your magic." She said, before closing her hand, simultaneously dispelling the ball of light she had been holding in so far. Then she added: "This spell is also used for training purpose because it teaches you to condense mana into a relatively-stable form outside of your body. A technique that nearly all Mid-Childan non-elemental shooting spells use to create their projectiles."

As simple as that spell sounded in theory, Harry quickly found out that casting it for real was anything but easy. And even the comment from his sensei that there was nothing wrong with not getting the spell to work on the first day of trying wasn't making it easier for him.

It took the young Potter a couple of dozens tries before he got a handle on how to control his mana outside of his body! Even then, his mana stubbornly refused to stay together in a ball-like shape he was supposed to have it in – it kept breaking apart and dispersing at any chance it got.

And before the green-eyed teen knew it, it was the lunch time. He still was quite unsuccessful in casting the '**Guiding light**' spell correctly, but at least, after four hours of trying, there was some progress. Namely, he managed to make the _it_ give off some light. Too bad, _it_ was not a stable ball of mana but an amorphous and ever-changing blob with wisps of magical energy breaking away from it all the time.

"Alright." 'Doctor' Kyoko said. "I think it's time for you to take some rest." After a short pause, she added: "There is a staff meeting this afternoon, so I won't be able to observe your training then." Harry couldn't help but lower his head. As hard as the spell was proving itself to be, learning magic once again was fun. And he'd rather keep going, despite his apparent lack of success... The blond scientist obviously noticed that expression on his face. "I'll be giving you some homework, though."

"Oh?" The young Potter asked. Wasn't he supposed to be practicing his magic only under supervision?

"Here." Kyoko waved her hand, making three holographic displays holding various data pop up. "This is the recordings of your ten latest attempts at casting '**Guiding light**'. I'll have a printout waiting for you in my office." She said. "I want you to try and analyze them. And, if you can, try to think of a way to adjust the spell's formulas that would make it more stable in your case."

"I'll see what I can do, ma'am." The green-eyed teen replied as he scanned the data on the displays... And if that data was to be believed, the only problem with his casting of the spell was the lack of stability for the mana ball he was supposed to make. Everything else in his casting appeared to be done more or less without errors.

"Good." The blond warrant officer said. "Now, let's go get some lunch, shall we?"

* * *

Harry ended up spending a good deal of the evening that day on attempts to understand how he could adjust the '**Guiding light**' spell to make it work for himself. And after pouring over the equations for a few hours he ended up with three possible solutions.

Two of those required him to simply use different sets coefficients in a few places and would result in a mana ball of different size or density – but the young Potter was quite sure that if the solution to his problem was just that simple, he would have accidentally stumbled upon it in the morning... The third possible solution, though, would see him including an extra set of parameters into the spell's equations to counteract the dispersion.

Deciding that this third route was most likely the correct one, the green-eyed youth began rewriting the equations of the '**Guiding light**' spell. And while he knew that he shouldn't just put extra parameters into the equation without understanding what exactly they meant, he couldn't really phantom what the physical interpretation of those new constants he was adding should be... Hopefully, 'doctor' Chidori will help him with those during their next session...

* * *

As it turned out, his guess was quite spot on: the first thing that Kyoko did was reminding him that adding something to the spell's equations without truly understanding what he was doing was very dangerous. After all, if his gut feeling was wrong and he had added something incorrectly, a nasty incident could happen the moment he tried the modified spell out. But at the same time she also praised him for the approach he had taken.

The two of them then spent the entire morning and a part of the afternoon re-checking his modified equations to make sure that the resulting piece of magic wouldn't blow in Harry's face or something like that. During that time, the blond scientist, using her great experience in magical theory and spell-crafting, added a few more adjustments to his work.

And after a few computer simulations to see that the modified spell was safe to use, 'doctor' Chidori gave Harry the green light in trying the spell out for real... The result, while still not ideal, was much better than before: the young Potter might still have some troubles keeping mana together in a tight ball, but at least now the said ball wasn't falling apart so fast that the spell couldn't function properly.

**~/ *** \~**

Over the next couple of days Harry finally got a good handle on casting his modified '**Guiding light**' properly and so it was the time for him to move onto the next thing to learn. Namely, this time 'doctor' Chidori was going to teach him probably the most important skill for any mage to have: telepathy.

"_Alright, Harry, can you hear me?_" The blond scientist 'asked', her voice seemingly originating from within his head. This had surprised the young Potter quite a lot. So much, actually, that for a moment he had lost his control over a ball of light he had hovering next to him, causing it to dissipate into nothing.

"Yes." He replied after he recreated the cursed magical light.

"_Good._" Kyoko's voice inside his head said then. "_It looks like the peculiarities of your magic don't affect the establishing of telepathic links._" That sounded like it was a very good thing. "_Now, can you try talking to me without saying anything aloud?_" She asked then.

"How?" The green-eyed teen answered with a question of his own.

"_Can you sense a bit of my mana within yourself?_" 'Doctor' Chidori said. When Harry nodded, she continued: "_It is the link I'm speaking to you through. It goes both ways, so to give me your answer telepathically, just think of what you want to say and push that thought into the connection. It would work the same way if you talk to more than one person as well._" She explained.

"L_i_k_e_ t_h_i_s_?" The young Potter asked.

"_Almost._" The blond scientist replied, still without saying a single word out aloud. "_I could hear you over the link, though you were still talking out aloud as well. Don't worry, a little bit of practice and telepathy will be an easy thing to you_." She gave him her countenance.

"O_k_a_y_..." The green-eyed teen replied. It still wasn't a complete telepathy, but, at very least, he was progressing in learning this skill much faster than he did with the '**Guiding light**' spell.

"_Also. Once you can use the existing links to talk to others properly, I will have you learn how to establish one yourself._" Kyoko added then, instantly reminding her charge that they hadn't even started the hardest part of his current lesson yet...

**~/ *** \~**

Over the next three months the young Potter had learned three more spells. Well, 'learn' might not be the right word to use there as all three spells had to be significantly altered if not outright rewritten to make them work properly within that quirky magical system of his.

The first one out of those three spells was the '**Pulse scan**'. It was based on the '**Area search**' spell, the purpose of which was detection of any and all things magical around the caster. It was without any doubts a very useful piece of magic, though not often used as for whatever reasons, many mages tended to prefer more specialized search spells.

Another spell added to Harry's repertoire was a basic shield, to which he gave the name of '**Lesser aegis**'... Unfortunately, this shield turned out to be way too basic as it seemed to work properly only against physical attacks. Magical shots weren't stopped by it, even if they were weakened somewhat. A lot of attempts to improve this shield had been made either by Kyoko or by the young Potter himself, but none of those had really worked. Thus, after wasting quite a bit of time on this task, the two of them had decided to move onto other spells and return to improving '**Lesser aegis**' later, when the green-eyed teen's magic was understood better.

Finally, there was Harry's sole piece of offensive magic, which had been derived from the basic Mid-Childan shooting spell. And due to how its bullets resembled falling stars, Harry ended up naming it '**Starfall shooter**'. Because like all offensive spells within the administered worlds it needed to have a non-lethal mode, the development of this spell took the longest time. And it still ended up as quirky as the shield one, though in completely different ways... For one, '**Starfall shooter**' was neither guided nor homing, but the young Potter still could define the trajectories of the bullets before they were fired. That, and the bullets themselves, despite not being very powerful, seemed to phase through standard Mid-Childan shields just as well as Mid-Childan shooting spells phased through his '**Lesser aegis**'.

Harry had also expressed his desire to learn the '**Dimensional transfer**' spell, but given how complex it was, it was decided that he should wait until after he got a functioning device for himself before attempting to learn it.

**~/ *** \~**

Even though he had barely slept the previous night, Harry was still full of energy this morning. The reason for that was quite simple: today they were going to start working on his device! And once he had it, he will be able to learn and do even more magic!

Being too excited about this to wait any longer, the young Potter arrived to the cafeteria almost as soon as it opened. And after practically devouring his breakfast, he headed straight to Kyoko's office. Somehow, though, he was still the last one to arrive: by the time he got there, not only 'doctor' Chidori was already there, but so were her two apprentices, Mary and Amy. And the three of them were already immersed in work, surrounded by floating holographic displays with various data.

"Alright." The blond warrant officer said. "Now that we are all here, shall we begin?" As all three teens nodded in agreement, she continued: "As I've promised it to Harry, we're going to start working on his device. However, given the unique nature of his magic, we will likely need to significantly alter a standard programming of a core to make it work for him." Here 'doctor' Chidori made a pause, during which she pulled a box out of her table's cabinet. Inside that box there was a number of crystals in several different colors. "Speaking of which, here is a number of blank cores for storage devices." She continued, gesturing towards these crystals. "While they technically should all be the same, it would still be better if Harry himself chooses the one for himself."

"Okay?.." The green-eyed teen replied as he eyed a dozen or so devices' cores. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to pick one over another – especially since they supposedly were different only in their appearance – so he closed his eyes and let the Chance decide for him. Thus, he ended up with Baguette-cut ultramarine 'gem' roughly the size of his index finger's phalanx.

"Good. The device core you picked recognizes you as a mage and measures your Linker Core's maximal capacity correctly." 'Doctor' Chidori commented as she scanned the information on one of the holographic displays floating in front of her. She then returned the box with the remaining cores to her table's cabinet – those were no longer needed and would only be getting in their way otherwise.

"Shall we start working on it?" Mariel asked then.

"Well, probably. We have a lot of work to do on this one." Kyoko replied. "The mana management algorithms need to be rewritten, and the same goes for the spell assistance sub-system." She paused, before switching her attention back to the young Potter. "And since we will be more or less rebuilding the device, Harry, why don't you pick another form for it? Somehow I don't think you'd want to keep it as a staff." The green-eyed teen nodded.

"Hm... until we find a way to make my '**Aegis**' shield work properly against the magical attacks, I will have to rely on physical armor to protect myself, won't I? Maybe, my device then should be a part of that armor? Something like a bracer or, maybe, a gauntlet?"

"Sounds like a decent idea." 'Doctor' Chidori agreed. "Anyhow, unless you want to watch us delve into the source codes for the device's system, why don't you busy yourself with designing the appearance of your device?" She asked then. And since Harry had barely touched the books about programming, he was sure that he won't understand a thing in what the three Device Meisters – well, one true Meister and two trainees – were about to do. So, getting himself a holographic display to work with, he began sketching his future device...

* * *

Over the next five weeks both 'doctor' Chidori herself and the two of her apprentices spent hours upon hours on modifying the once-normal-storage device into something that would work alright for the young Potter. Of course, Harry was helping them as much as he could, but given how little he still knew about programming, his assistance was generally limited to double- and triple-checking the mathematics behind the system. After all, so far only he himself and Kyoko-san had the knowledge on how his magic was working...

Anyhow, it was near the end of January 0065 when 'doctor' Chidori declared his device ready for the test drive. Of course, everyone, Harry himself included, knew that it was still far from being finished, but at least it now _looked_ complete. In its standby form this yet to be named device had the appearance of a full-metal bracer with its only 'decoration' being the aquamarine gem of its core that was partially hidden by the armor.

"Why don't you try it out, Harry?" The blond-haired scientist asked as he handed the device they had been working on so hard over to its intended owner.

"Of course, and thank you all for what you've done for me." The young Potter said as he took the device and placed it on his right hand. As soon as the bracer was in place, the gem flashed with some inner light, apparently recognizing that it was now worn by a mage. "Drive ignition!" He commanded, causing the gem to flash again as it accepted the command. Meanwhile, a holographic display with the debug data popped up in front of 'doctor' Chidori.

"It seems to be working fine so far." She commented. "Why don't you activate it now?" She suggested.

"Active form!" Harry commanded. Since there was no model for his barrier jacket – he will have to customize it later on – the only thing that changed was the device itself. The bracer was gone and in its place there now was a rather big and well-armored gauntlet in silvery colors with sharp and pointy claws at the tips of the fingers. The device's core was now completely hidden under the layer of armor too. "I suppose, it is functioning correctly so far." The young Potter commented. This being his first time wielding a device, he had no real idea of what to expect.

"Seems so." Amy, who was looking into the display with the debug data over her mentor's shoulder, agreed. 'Doctor' Kyoko herself was of the same opinion as she nodded in agreement with her brown-haired apprentice.

"How about testing some actual performance then?" The blond warrant officer asked then. "We have input all of the spells you've successfully cast before, so why don't you try casting a shield spell with your device? Just tell the device what you want it to do and don't cast it on your own – we already know that you can do that." Harry nodded.

"Alright..." Taking a deep breath, he concentrated on the connection he now shared with a storage device on his right hand. "**Lesser aegis!**" He ordered then, pushing the thought of what he wanted the device to do towards its core. The device returned a 'heartbeat' to acknowledge the command. Then, a ghostly-blue semi-sphere with Harry's magical circle projected onto it shimmered into existence in front of the green-eyed teen. Unfortunately, it looked like the device wasn't tuned correctly, as the shield looked all noisy and unstable.

"Seems like we will need to fine-tune the calculating algorithms, they are making some significant errors." 'Doctor' Chidori said as Harry stopped feeding mana to his device, causing the faulty shield to disappear. "Though, at least it works somehow. I've half expected that it would throw up an error the first time we tried it."

"Standby form." The young Potter commanded, returning the device to its bracer form. Then he took it off and handed it back to the Device Meisters. "Well, shall we get back to work?" He asked rather enthusiastically: finally getting a device will be a big step towards becoming a proper mage for him. And he couldn't wait to complete this step!

"Well, seeing that it now works, I think I should leave it in your capable hands, Amy, Mary." The blond scientist addressed to her apprentices. "Harry will, of course, be there to help you with the mathematics behind his magic system..." The three teens nodded. Meanwhile, Kyoko continued: "Also, Harry, I think you should think of a name for your device... And design a barrier jacket to."

"Aye, aye, ma'am!" The young Potter replied in a mock-proper manner.

* * *

It took the three teenagers another two weeks of efforts to fine-tune Harry's device – which now had the name of 'Phoenix claw' – to the point where it could cast all of its owner's spells properly. 'Doctor' Chidori was also very satisfied with the results of their work, going as far as to proclaim that both Amy and Mary could now call themselves the real Device Meisters, which made both girls glow with happiness at least for a whole week.

Of course, the creation of his device, especially given how much work it required, had cost the young Potter quite a bit of money – the Bureau was compensate him only a half of the device's cost. But it didn't really matter to Harry as he had the money to pay 'Doctor' Chidori and her girls for the work that had done for him. Plus, this device was the testament of him becoming a real mage, thus, for him, it was totally worth its cost.

And let's not forget that for Harry getting his device meant the he finally could advance onto the more complex spells, the ones that he couldn't make calculations for without a device's assistance due how difficult the math involved was. And out of those spells, the '**Dimensional transfer**' was the one the young Potter wanted to learn the most...

Oh, and in those two weeks the green-eyed teen had also made some improvements to the spells he already knew, and his '**Lesser aegis**' shield was enhanced the most. No, it was still unable to completely block magical projectiles, even the weak ones, but now it reduced their power as they phased through it much more reliably. Harry's sole offensive spell, the '**Starfall shooter**' also got some improvements that made its bullets faster and more powerful. Yep, Harry was getting better and better with his magic!

**~/ *** \~**

Today was going to be an interesting day, Harry though as he followed 'doctor' Chidori and Amy into one of the Aerial Tactical Instructor Corps training grounds. Technically, they were there for the brunette's C-rank mage test, but if what Kyoko had been hinting at was true, the young Potter would get a chance to show off too.

Soon enough, the three of them arrived to the central clearing, where a single woman in the white Air Force uniform had been waiting for them. This woman was pretty short and most of her hair had turned gray with age. But the nearly-tangible aura of power surrounding her made it quite very clear that despite her appearance, she was someone very capable and experienced fighter that could take on entire platoons and win.

"Good morning, major!" Warrant officer Chidori said as she stopped and saluted with Harry and Amy following the suit just a moment later. "_This is major Fern Corrado from the Aerial Tactical Instructor Corps. She a double-A ranked mage who took the position in the Corps around twenty years ago after retiring from active duty. Since then she had earned herself a reputation of one of the best combat instructors on Mid-Childa. And, today, she will be your examiner, Amy._" The blond scientist introduced the major to her charges. And the young Potter could swear that he heard the brunette next to him swallow nervously... Considering that all tests for mage ranking involved either an obstacle course or a direct fight against an examiner, he could understand the girl's fearfulness.

"At ease." Major Corrado replied as she returned the salute. There was a short pause, before she continued: "Limietta-san, you are here to take your C-rank exam, right?" Amy, who had stiffened the moment she had been addressed to, gave a rather-mechanical nod.

"Y-Yes, ma'am." She replied finally.

"Your exam will be a combat simulation against me." The Air Force instructor said then. "You will be judged based on how well you perform during this simulation. In order to pass this exam, you need to..." And while she was explaining the tasks to Amy, major decided to speak to Harry as well: "_And would you be Harry Potter-san? I've heard quite a few interesting things about you, young man._" Since the green-eyed had been listening to the explanation of the exam, it took him a few moment to get his wits together and form a reply.

"_Yes, ma'am. Thank you ma'am._" He finally responded telepathically.

"_I'm interested in what you can do, young man. After all, it's not everyday that I get to see the powers of someone with a never seen before system of magic..._" Major continued. "_Could you, perhaps, have a small spar with this old lady, once she is done with testing cadet Limietta?_" Despite the way it was phrased, this was not a question. It was an order. But before Harry could reply to it, 'doctor' Chidori entered their telepathic conversation:

"_Not to question your decisions, major, but are you sure about that? There is still quite a lot of things we don't know for sure about Potter-san's magic. I'd rather..._" Head instructor Corrado shook her head.

"_I might not be as young as I used to be, Kyoko-chan, but do I really have to remind you that even the three of you together will have a very hard time winning against me?_" And it was not the old lady's arrogance speaking. She had more than enough combat experience, skill and raw magical power to back this claim up... 'Doctor' Chidori shook her head.

"_No, of course no, ma'am. I was just expressing the reasonable caution when dealing with a not yet completely understood phenomenon._" She replied. That answer, apparently, was enough to satisfy major... There was a short pause in the telepathic conversation, before head instructor Corrado broke the 'silence' by addressing to Harry:

"_So... What would your answer be, young man?_" She asked.

"_It will be a honor to have a friendly match against you, major._" The green-eyed teen replied.

"_Of course. Now, if you excuse this old lady, there is a cadet whose skills I need to examine._" Major Corrado replied telepathically, before shutting the link off. "Are you ready, cadet Limietta?" She asked Amy then. The brown-haired girl – who already clad in her barrier jacket and had her device in her hands, nodded. "Then, your exam begins... Now!"

* * *

The mock battle that was Amy's exam lasted maybe three minutes. And it was so one-sided, despite major not even using her device, that the brunette got a chance to show off her offensive capabilities only because her examiner allowed her to. Yet, despite all that, apparently, she did well enough for head instructor Corrado to give her a pass.

"Cadet Limietta of Dimensional Navy, congratulations on successfully passing your C-rank exam." Major said to the brown-haired girl, who was trying to catch her breath sitting on the ground... Upon hearing those words, though, Amy seemed to instantly regain her strength as she shot up into standing upright, coming to attention.

"Thank you, ma'am!" She pronounced loudly. Major Corrado merely waved her hand dismissively at the girl's impulsiveness as she continued:

"I've heard that you've are being transferred to warship "Athra" as their new engineer at the end of the next week, correct?" Amy confirmed that. "Well, when you finally meet Lindy-chan... I mean, captain Harlaown, can you please tell her that I said 'hello'." It was clear that such a request caught the brown-haired Device Meister off guard, but she still responded as was expected of her:

"Of course, ma'am; I shall do that." Nodding, major switched her attention to Harry.

"And now, shall we have our spar, Potter-san?" She asked then.

"Yes, ma'am." The green-eyed teen confirmed as he walked onto the center of the clearing where Amy's mock battle had taken place. There was an intermission for a few seconds, before he noticed major looking at him expectantly. Apparently, he was supposed to activate his device and change into his barrier jacket before the beginning of the spar... "Phoenix claw, set up!" The young Potter commanded, changing his device into its gauntlet form.

And now that he had decided on the appearance of his barrier jacket and its specifications had been saved into his device, his clothes changed as well. So, the moment he called for activation of his device, his previous attire changed into a long-sleeved and rather muscle-tight thin sweater in Egyptian blue with segmented chest-piece and, small shoulder pads in silver metallic over it; black fingerless glove for his left hand with a small armor plate on the back; black pants with metal plates covering the front of cruses and rather normal and mostly-unarmored boots. And he also gained a narrow, almost vambrace-like, shield strapped to his left hand.

It was clear that the amount of physical armor he had in his barrier jacket had surprised major Corrado at least a little bit, but she didn't comment on it. Instead, she just shifted into a more battle-ready stance.

"Ready when you are." She said, apparently giving Harry a chance to open the match. Well, if that was so, he wasn't going to keep the lady waiting. Pointing his gauntlet-clad right hand in her direction with his palm open, the young Potter summoned eight balls of light.

"**Starfall shooter!**" These balls of light instantly turned into magical bullets speeding towards the major in straight lines. Seeing the incoming attack, instructor Corrado silently raised a Mid-Childan shield with barely jest. This made Harry worry a bit as conventional defensive magics hadn't worked against his shooter spells so far. And major's shield didn't turn out to be any different... However, even without moving out of her spot, the old lady still didn't get hit – she just destroyed his magical bullets with a controlled burst of her raw mana.

"Interesting..." She commented. "This spell is clearly based on the basic shooter, yet it went through my shield almost like it wasn't even there. The Bureau certainly would love to have you as one of their operatives if this is the magic you are wielding, young man." Finally dispelling her shield, major pointed her index finger back at young Potter. A moment later, a mandarin-sized ball of purplish light appeared in front of it. Then it exploded into a good dozen of magical bullets that sped towards Harry, each following its own unique trajectory.

The green-eyed teen responded by deploying his own shield – '**Lesser aegis**' – as far from himself as he could. While the chances of his shield deflecting those bullets were close to zero, it still could weaken them and slow them down somewhat...

Too bad, the bullets major was using were the guided ones: she simply had half of them fly around the young Potter's magical shield, thus forcing him to avoid being hit by them through other means. Namely, dodging or deflecting them with his physical armor. And, thanks to physical training he had undergone along with a magical one, Harry did that well enough – none of the bullets managed to land a solid hit on him, even if he now had a few singed spots on his vambrace shield.

"Well, it seems that you have to pay for your actually impressive offensive capabilities with rather weak magical defenses. And you yourself know that." Instructor Corrado observed. "Just don't ever forget that there are attacks that are too powerful to be stopped by physical barriers."

"Yes, ma'a-..." Harry began, only to give out a yelp of surprise and pain as a weak magical projectile hit an unarmored spot on his back.

"And here is another lesson for you, young man." Major continued. "Guided projectiles need to be canceled, unless you want them coming at you again and again. Deflecting them just once won't cut it."

"I shall remember that." The green-eyed teen replied as he steadied himself on his feet. Practical experience like that was something that couldn't be easily forgotten.

"Good." Instructor Corrado summed up. "Now, why don't we continue our spar?" Harry replied with a nod, before preparing good two dozens of magical bullets.

"**Starfall shooter!**" This time, however, he had each separate bullet follow a unique curved trajectory. And since this meant they all would arrive at their target in series, the old lady was actually forced to finally move out of her spot. Which, admittedly, was an achievement of sorts as Amy, despite passing her C-rank exam, couldn't do that.

However, this also meant that major would now take him a bit more seriously... And that was not something Harry could fight against yet. From there, it was only a matter of time before the barrages of various shooting spells she kept throwing at him took him down...

* * *

"Well..." Major Corrado said once Harry returned to the world of living after being knocked out by a stunning bullet she had hit him with. "Given how Potter-san had been introduced to magic mere half a year ago, I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised by the level of proficiency he is showing. He is definitely ready for C-rank as well. And, depending on his luck, he might even be able to pass a B-rank exam right now." Wow, the green-eyed teen thought, was he really that good already?

"Thank you, ma'am." He responded, while thinking that he should also thank Kyoko-sensei for this: without her help, he wouldn't be at this level... Head instructor waved her hand as she continued, now addressing to 'doctor' Chidori

"Knowing you, you will want to triple check that there are no surprises that his magic can dish up before letting him out into the big world, but you really should register him as a special cadet under your tutelage, Kyoko-chan." The blond scientist nodded.

"I was actually planning to do that." She said then.

"Good. I would really like to such a fine and interesting young man among the Bureau's active staff." Major Corrado replied. She was about to say something more, but paused when her device received a message, apparently from the Aerial Tactical Instructor Corps head office. "Sorry, but it looks like the guys back there need me to fix whatever mess they made, again." She excused herself. "It was nice to meet you, Limietta-san, Potter-san. Take care and make the Bureau proud!" And with those words, she turned around and began walking out of the training grounds.

"Alright..." 'Doctor' Chidori after a drawn out pause. "Why don't we take a day off today and head into the town to celebrate Amy's success today?" She asked then. Of course, both teenagers readily agreed with this proposition.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	8. Meeting the Knights

The eights chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**chm01**, **Jose19**, **Teucrian**, I've answered your review via PM.  
**ultima-owner**, the thing is, while his shooting spells will phase through conventional Mid-Childan or Belkan shields, the reverse is also true - his shields can only weaken the incoming spells a bit. He's a glass cannon when it comes to ranged magical attacks almost to the extreme at the moment. Which is why he added so much physical armor to his barrier jacket: without it, the chances are, he won't last more than a few seconds in actual combat.  
**roanoak**, name me one wizard who actually uses illusions in combat from the "_**Harry Potter**_" books? As for Harry's repertoire, some illusions might be added to it at a later date, but he won't have any transfiguration spells at all. As even his unique magic system can't include them and he is not capable of using wizarding magic anymore, at least on the levels where it is of any use on the battlefield.  
**Shadowsmage**, **FateBurn**, **karthik9**, **Impstar**, **serialkeller**, **lordamnesia**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Penny is wise**, **dhyetaX1999**, **Guest**, **Opinr**, **thunder18**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**celf**, no, just because he is ready for it, he isn't a C-rank yet. He'll be advance straight to B-rank in chapter IX, though. As for "_**Harry Potter**_" girls... He won't be back to UW-138 until way later, and while I do plan to use (at least) one girl in the arc where the action actually takes place on UW-138, I don't plan on any Hogwarts witches joining TSAB. Plus it's not like Harry won't have any girls after him as it is. ;)  
**SilverStarWaters**, Harry's barrier jacket was, actually, inspired by king Arthur's armor from Fate/Prototype. Somewhat, at least.  
**kroz phantomville**, and everyone else wondering about why I keep using 'doctor': neither of the two OCs who are 'doctors' are actual healers or have Ph.D equivalent from Mid-Childa, hence using 'doctor' without quotes would be incorrect.  
**SonicAnime2010**, and back to Harry's barrier jacket... He is a mage who fights mostly at range, so melee weapon isn't all that necessary for him. And while this chapter will have him learning how to 'befriend' people up close and personal, a heavy metal gauntlet is still good enough to leave sufficient impression on the target. It will be later upgraded with second form where it gains wrist-blades, though.  
**Arc-Angel-Of-Fire**, hm... I probably made it not clear back then... His 'new' magic was coming easier without a wand in hand, not the wizarding one. He is barely able to summon lighting charm that is at all visible, and the rest of his old spells aren't any better, how do you expect him to fight with something so weak? 

*** AN**: I hope this chapter finally makes it really clear when the story takes place.

* * *

**_Disclaimer_**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

_**Special thanks**_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter  
chapter VIII: Meeting the knights**

Another three months had passed. During this time 'doctor' Chidori finally finished with the tests aimed to understand the properties and limitations of Harry's unique magic. And no matter what the two of them tried, there weren't able to make it interact with Mid-Childan spells properly – those just kept phasing through each other. Yet, that peculiarity aside, the young Potter's magic was safe and controllable enough for Kyoko to have no problems with officially enrolling him into the TSAB forces as a Ground Forces special cadet. With herself as his mentor, of course.

And mentor Harry she did. In these three month she had taught the green-eyed teen the '**Dimensional transfer**', a highly-useful transportation spell that allowed a mage to teleport from one place to another. And with enough power, one could even jump between nearby worlds, if those were close enough, with this piece of magic! The young Potter, having a reactor-type Lost Logia to power him up, certainly had enough mana to pull something like that off. Though, he was yet to try that out for real yet.

While learning the '**Dimensional transfer**' took a good chunk of those three months, it wasn't the only spell that Harry had added to his repertoire. He had also developed a variation of a basic binding spell called '**Chain bind**' for his own use. While his '**Whips of light**' were a bit slower to cast than their prototype, they also were noticeably more powerful, which made them a perfect spell to prevent even powerful targets from moving away while he bombarded them with his shield-penetrating attacks.

Speaking of those, not only had Harry made some further improvement to his '**Starfall shooter**', once again upping the speed and power of its 'bullets', but he also created a new and much more powerful spell based on it. With this yet to be named spell, he could charge up only one 'bullet' at a time, and doing that took about a second, but the amount of devastation the successful hit could cause... It was a good thing that he had been sensible enough to try this new spell out outdoors first as 'Doctor' Chidori's laboratory wouldn't have survived _that_ intact.

Aside from magical training, Kyoko also began tutoring Harry in everything he will need to know when he eventually joined the Bureau's ranks. Namely, various protocols and rules of conduct. The blond warrant officer also insisted on him upping his physical training: jogging around the block every morning was good and all, but... Soldiers were expected to be a bit more fit than that, at least until they grew into senior officers and ended up buried under paperwork in their offices.

**~/ *** \~**

"Good morning, Harry." Kyoko greeted her charge as he walked into her office. She could already see him preparing a question about what they were going to work on today, so she just went ahead and gave him the answer: "I've decided that, maybe, you should get some exposure to Belkan-style magic as well. The practitioners are rather uncommon, but I've managed to find one who is willing to teach you a thing or two about how the knights fight."

"T-Thank you, ma'am." The young Potter replied after a few long seconds, still rather stunned by what his mentor had just said. While the Belkan magic system wasn't really better or worse than Mid-Childan one, it was very rare these days, so to think that he would be given a chance to learn from a practitioner of those magical arts...

"Don't mention it." 'Doctor' Chidori replied. "The Bureau sees you as a great asset and they are willing to go quite some lengths to see you properly prepared for what you will be facing once you officially join their ranks." Well, Harry thought idly, that certainly explained why such a high-profile scientist like Kyoko-sensei was allowed to spend almost all of her time training him. Though, being seen as a mere asset, a tool to be used, was a little disconcerting... Then again, a soldier always was a tool, no matter which military he belonged to.

"So..." The green-eyed teen began after a pause. "When and where those lessons will take place?" After all, Kyoko-sensei's laboratory was not the best place for martial arts practices and, from what he had read, most of Belkan magic users gravitated towards melee combat.

"You will be meeting with your new _teacher_ in the Fourth Ground Forces Academy's training grounds number six in two hours." 'Doctor' Chidori replied, a playful sparkle in her eyes telling Harry that there were some, likely minor, details about that practitioner of Belkan magic that she was omitting. "Please don't be late there." Harry nodded.

"I shall be on my way then." After all, the Fourth Ground Forces Academy was on the South-West edge of Cranagan, about an hour and half by bus from the TSAB Mid-Childan main offices, where the Magitek Research Department was located.

"Of course." Kyoko agreed.

"By your leave, sensei." The young Potter said and, without really waiting for an answer from his mentor, left her office.

* * *

In the end, because of the traffic and other minor delays, Harry arrived to the Fourth Ground Forces Academy's facilities with only a few minutes to spare. At least, he could see the gates leading into the training grounds from his current position. So, not going to waste anymore time, the green-eyed teen left the bus stop and hurried down the alley, looking for the gate of the training ground six...

Which, not really surprisingly, was the sixth gate down the alley. And since the said gates were closed and he couldn't really see anyone else there, the young Potter thought that, maybe, he had arrived before his new trainer. A moment later, though, he heard something human-sized move in the canopy of a tree next to him. Not knowing what that was, he jumped a couple of steps back while turning to face the direction which the sound came from, ready to activate his device.

The source of the sound turned out to be a youthful-looking woman in her early twenties in Ground Forces uniform standing on a think branch of the tree. She had big teal eyes and most fantastic long purple hair made into a high ponytail with a light-blue ribbon holding it in place.

Actually, after thinking about it for a couple of moments, the young Potter was sure that he had seen her face in the news once or twice, along with those of a lavender-haired woman about her age and a huge man with shaggy brown hair...

"You have good reflexes." She commented as she _stepped_ off her branch and gracefully descended onto the ground. And now that he could see her shoulder straps properly, Harry noticed that she also was a warrant officer.

"Good morning, ma'am!" He said immediately while saluting to her.

"Good morning." She replied, returning the salute, but only because it was the proper thing to do and not because she liked following this particular routine. Then, she added: "Also, I'm kinda off-duty right now, so doing that isn't necessary." Harry nodded in acknowledgment. "Anyway, I guess introductions are in order?" She said, while sliding her identification card through the card reader next to the gates, making them slid open.

"Yeah." He agreed. "I'm special cadet Harry Potter under warrant officer Kyoko Chidori of Magitek Research Department." The purple-haired beauty waved her hand dismissively: she knew that already. She had been requested to train him, after all!

"And I'm warrant officer Quint Nakajima." The young woman finally told him her name. "I'm a part of the investigation team led by captain Zest Grangaitz." Now that was the name Harry had definitely heard about – that team had solved a really major case a few months ago and the media had been talking about their success for quite some time. Though, despite showing all members of that team, they only ever mentioned captain Grangaitz by his name.

"Alright, Nakajima-sensei, what are the plans for today?" The young Potter asked, curious about what his new trainer had in store for his first 'lesson'.

"Well..." Quint replied, a bit thoughtfully. "I think we should have a small spar to see where you stand with your current abilities. Then, we will be working from there." Well, that sounded right: how you could teach something to someone whose skills you knew nothing about?

The two of them soon found themselves entering in a pretty big clearing within the forest-like training grounds. And since this location suited their current needs quite well, the purple-haired beauty decided that it was as good place as any for their sparing to take place.

"There should be fine." She said. "Get ready." Without really waiting for him, she pulled two rather sizable armored gauntlets with spinning gears around wrists from ...well, somewhere, and put them on. Given how big those devices were, Harry was sure that they couldn't have been concealed on her person. "Revolver Knuckles, activate!" There was a brief flash of light as Quint's clothes were replaced by her barrier jacket... Well, knight's armor – she was a user of Belkan magic system, after all.

Whatever the proper name for those clothes might be, they were an almost black bodysuit with blue lines on it with an armor plate covering the chest area; an armored belt with segmented tassets and a deep-blue waist-coat attached to it; and a pair of armored roller-blades.

And considering the fact that this knight's armor made the fact that Quint was a shapely and rather well-endowed woman even more blatant and he himself was a growing boy approaching his fourteenth birthday, Harry couldn't help but have his attention wander off her face downwards... He was quickly brought back to reality when the purple-haired beauty slammed her gauntlets into each other with enough force to produce a damn shockwave.

"Phoenix claw, set up!" The green-eyed Earthling called, changing his device into its active form and donning his barrier jacket. The amount of physical armor he had incorporated into it did make Quint raise her eyebrow – even Belkan-magic users rarely ever wore that much – but she didn't say anything.

"If you are ready..." The warrant officer Nakajima said. Harry nodded, his mind already trying to come up with the ways he could last against her. "Then, our spar starts... Now!" Not wasting any time, the green-eyed teen opened the fight by sending a dozen or so 'bullets' towards his new sensei:

"**Starfall shooter!**" The purple-haired beauty raised a Belkan triangular shield in front of herself, but when it proved to be rather useless, she simply batted them away with her armored gauntlets.

"Interesting... A shooting spell that can go through normal magical defenses? That's quite useful for catching someone off guard." She commented. "But can you really use it actual fight?" Accepting the challenge the young Potter summoned a new set of 'bullets', before sending them towards Nakajima-sensei. Only for her to move out of the way, causing the magical projectiles to hit the ground instead. Deciding to try again, Harry created twice as many 'bullets' and gave them a better spread, but the result was still the same: despite all of the improvements he had made for his '**Starfall shooter**', Quint was just too fast for it to hit her.

'**Whips of Light!**' A number of magic circles appeared on the ground around the purple-haired beauty, and a moment later glowing whitish-blue cords of magic wrapped themselves around her body, restraining her. And since his magic was locked in the stun mode and his trainer had already proved herself to be a very tough girl, the green-eyed teen decided to try his yet-to-be-named overpowered shooting spell out. After all, the binds would give him the time he needed to charge it up, right?

A blink of an eye later, though, Quint physically tore the magical binds he had placed on her apart. And the backlash from his spell destroyed in such a violent way was enough for him to lose concentration for a moment and the 'bullet' he had been preparing fizzled away. Meanwhile, investigator Nakajima somehow managed to get close to him and was already raising her fist for a punch.

Without even using a verbal command, the young Potter hastily created a '**Lesser aegis**' shield in front of himself. Due to its nature, the shield managed to stop Quint's fist, but both she and Harry himself could see that a little bit more and it would break. And the purple-haired beauty still had a lot of strength to spare...

He didn't wait for her to break his shield though, instead, he canceled it himself, simultaneously rolling to the side. The sudden loss of the barrier she had been pushing against caused Nakajima-sensei to lose her balance a bit as he fell forward. And that was when a bright flash of light blinded her for a second. Instinctively, she immediately jumped aside, which proved itself to be correct thing to do as a number of magic 'bullets' went through the spot her body had been occupying a moment later.

Well, the purple-haired beauty thought, Potter-san was pretty good. And so far he was putting up a decent fight, especially for someone whose only attacks were unguided shooting spells. But, despite definitely being a B-rank mage already, he was not good enough to make her fight seriously... And since she had gotten a decent understanding of his strengths and weaknesses by now, Quint saw not much reason in dragging their fight out.

Collecting a decent amount of mana around her left fist, the Belkan knight punched the air in front of herself, creating a horizontal gust of tearing wind that sped towards the green-eyed teen. Making a note of his choosing to dodge this attack instead of deflecting it with a shield, warrant officer Nakajima quickly closed the distance between them, appearing in his melee range before he could fully recover from her previous attack.

Once again, though, Harry was able to block her punch with his shield... That was kind of irritating as breaking though magical defenses was her specialty. But instead of bothering to power her way through the shield, Quint decided to exploit its less-known weakness – namely, the fact that it protected only from attacks coming from one direction.

Using her powered roller-blades to quickly change her position, the purple-haired beauty threw a high kick at the young Potter. And this time he had no time to re-cast his shield and was forced to block her attack with his armor. And while he did manage that, the force behind the kick was so great that he was still sent flying, coming to stop in a rather awkward and uncomfortable position some ten meters away.

Nakajima-sensei was already by his side offering him her hand. And since he had already lost their spar, Harry had no problems with accepting it and being helped getting back onto his feet.

"Sorry... I guess, I got carried away a little bit..." That was one big problem for Belkan knights: they had no way of setting their melee attacks to 'stun' only. "Are you alright?"

"Don't worry, I've been through worse." Harry replied, still a little bit unsteady on his feet... Shaking his head, he took a look at the vambrace-like shield strapped to his left hand, the one he had blocked his sensei's kick with. And, this shield was actually bent a little bit! "You do hit hard..." He commented. "That strength can't be all natural, can it?"

"Yeah, it's not natural." Quint agreed. "How do you think it is achieved then?" She asked then. The green-eyed teen thought for a few seconds, before trying to give her an answer.

"You've used some kind of Belkan-system spell to make yourself stronger?" The purple-haired beauty shook her head.

"Nope. It's not a spell, and definitely not something unique to Belkan magic. Just... Most Mid-Childan mages always fight at a distance and never bother with augmenting their bodies like this, so this technique is mostly unknown to them." There was a small pause, before she continued: "Does your device have a magic scanner? Even the most basic one will do." Harry nodded. "Then turn it on and observe me." Doing like he was told, he watched Quint walk up to a sizable log lying at the edge of the clearing – it probably weighted about a metric ton – and lift one of its sides off the ground.

"You are... using your mana within your body to make your bones tougher and your muscles stronger." He said with a small surprise as he studied the output of his device's magic scanner.

"Precisely." His pretty mentor agreed, dropping the log back onto the ground. "This is a raw mana manipulation technique... In other words anyone with magic can learn it. Of course, you should remember that there are limits of how much your body can handle, magic or no magic. So don't ever try lifting really heavy things or you will overstrain yourself."

"I see." Harry breathed out.

"Unfortunately, since this kind of self-augmentation is a raw mana manipulation, you will have to learn it on your own. I will only be able to give you some advices." The young Potter nodded, kind of already expecting that given the way Nakajima-sensei approached it. Meanwhile she continued: "What I will be teaching you is proper forms for unarmed combat. I believe that everyone should know at least some basics of martial arts."

"Alright." He replied a little absentmindedly as he was still thinking about the raw mana manipulation techniques. The one Quint-sensei had just shown him, and the mana burst one that major Corrado had used to destroy his magical 'bullets' during their spar those three months ago. And, he was wondering, whether creating a layer of raw mana around his body would be a good way to improve his defenses against magical attacks... Well, to be able to test that theory, he'd need to learn how to manipulate his mana in such a way first...

"Okay then..." The purple-haired beauty said. "Shall we start your first lesson?"

**~/ *** \~**

Since Nakajima-sensei had at most a day a week to train him – and that is when she wasn't away on a mission with her team – the lessons in unarmed combat she was giving him consisted mostly of her checking his progress and showing him some new moves, which he'd then have to practice on his own.

And on two occasions their lessons had been joined by Quint's two adopted daughters, Subaru and Ginga. Though, had the purple-haired beauty not told him that, Harry would have though that they were her biological children, they looked so much like her... Anyhow, when the girls were present, they were the young Potter's sparring partners instead of their mother. At first he wasn't sure that having him spar against the five and seven years old kids was a good idea, but that changed once he got soundly beaten without being able to really do anything against them in their very first fight...

Nakajima-sensei was also trying to help him with learning the self-augmentation through mana manipulation, but even with her advices Harry's progress was quite slow. Then again, according to Quint, it took her months to master it as well, so the young Potter wasn't discouraged with his extremely slow progress yet.

* * *

Anyway, today was going to be their seventh lesson. But instead of meeting at the Fourth Ground Forces Academy's training grounds like they usually did, the purple-haired beauty had told him to meet her at the TSAB Main Offices instead. And be wearing his cadet uniform too.

At first, Harry was very surprised by this: it sounded like they will be attending an important event, but he had no idea what that event could be. Or that was so until he recalled the last few calls Amy-sempai, who now served as an engineer aboard of warship "Athra", made. Apparently, there had been a rather major incident involving some class three Lost Logia on the non-administered world 97, and now that the incident was finally over, "Athra"'s crew was transporting the bag guy behind it – someone named Fate Testarossa – to the Mid-Childa so that the justice could be served.

With that in mind, it was quite possible that warrant officer Nakajima wanted him to see how the Bureau's sword of justice worked.

That guess of his turned out to be exactly right: Quint was indeed taking him to the court where Fate Testarossa's trial was taking place. And since she was an investigator, she had no problems with getting them the seats in the public gallery. Also, as the people were assembling, she kept pointing the Bureau's important figures out, even if Harry had his doubts he will ever actually meet any of them in person.

Eventually, though, it was the time for the trial to begin, and... Well, based on the misdeeds she had supposedly done during the Lost Logia incident on the non-administered world 97, Harry expected Fate Testarossa to be someone of a more threatening appearance. But, instead, she was a cute nine-or-ten years old girl with long blond hair made into two pigtails and beautiful red eyes. Accompanying her was a noticeably-older orange-haired young woman with canine ears and tails – the girl's familiar, Arf.

"_Testarossa-san was estimated to be a double-A ranked mage and, according to the reports filed by captain Lindy Harlaown, she is a skillful fighter in both ranged and armed melee combat._" Quint commented telepathically.

"_I see..._" Was Harry's reply. No, he knew that there will always be someone better than him, but... He'd rather that someone was a successful TSAB officer like investigator Nakajima or major Corrado.

The crimes Fate Testarossa was accused of were surprisingly serious for someone not even in her teens: endangering civilian population of a non-administered world, assault on Bureau's personnel and civilian collaborators and illegal gathering of class one restricted items. However, she had quite a good exculpation as well: she had switched sides before the incident was over and willingly cooperated with the investigation, no one had been seriously harmed as the result of her actions and she had been collecting Lost Logia under her mother's orders.

After both the accuser and the defendant were heard, there were some small debates among the judges as to what punishment for her misdeeds the girl should be. In the end, the judges agreed upon giving Fate Testarossa a sentence of five years of mandatory service withing the Bureau's armed forces with three more years of probation after that. The girl's familiar – because she was, well, familiar and subservient to her master – got even more lenient punishment.

"_No prison sentence or anything like that?_" The young Potter asked telepathically, surprised by the judges' final verdict. Well, the girl was only ten, but still... Endangering the population of entire planet sounded like some very serious crime.

"_The Bureau is still young and its forces are spread very thin across the many administered and monitored worlds_." Quint replied. "_Thus, those who repent their criminal actions and have no blood on their hands are enlisted into the Bureau's armed forces instead. They serve their sentence by helping us maintain the order... Those who had killed or do not repent are the only ones that are sent to the prisons._" She explained. And this actually made some sense, even if such a system seemed to be too lenient in Harry's eyes.

* * *

With the final verdict passed and Fate Testarossa guided away by an enforcer and a few Ground Forces mages, the trial was officially over and so Harry and Quint had no real reason to stick around as well. However, as the two of them were walking out of the building, they had almost run into Zest Grangaitz, who was apparently waiting for his subordinate there.

"Captain!" The purple-haired beauty greeted her commander as she saluted. Standing next to her, the young Potter saluted as well. And, the green-eyed teen had to admit that in reality captain Grangaitz looked even more scary than on TV: the man was easily two heads taller than Harry himself was and gave off an impression that he could tear you in apart with his bare hands. Which, considering his status of an S-ranked knight, was something he actually could do... And it didn't look like he was in an exceptionally good mood either.

The young Earthling saw Zest glance at him for a moment, before returning his attention to Quint as the two of them, apparently, had a telepathic conversation. Quite a long one, or at least it felt so for the young Potter. Finally, they were done and warrant officer Nakajima turned to face him.

"I'm sorry, Harry." She said. "But we've been given a long-term mission. Even captain isn't sure how long it will take, so I won't even try scheduling our next lesson. Instead, when we're back, I'll contact you, either directly or through Chidori-san." Harry nodded. "For now, perfect what I've taught you. And if you feel lonely doing so by yourself, you can try contacting Genya-kun..."

"She means captain Nakajima of 108th battalion's 1st company." Zest inserted dryly.

"...I'm sure, he will let you practice with my cute little girls." Quint continued, ignoring him. "You three seemed to get along pretty well so far." The young Potter nodded again.

"Of course, sensei." He said.

"Alright then. We will be heading to the Medical Care Center now." Captain Grangaitz began. "If you are still living at the Magitek Research Department's hostel like your file says, we can give you a lift."

"If you don't mind, sir..." Harry replied.

"That won't be a problem for us." The large man replied, as he headed towards a large jeep-like car with Bureau's numberplate. "And my lovely subordinate over here seems to have taken a liking to you, so..." He trailed off as he fished the car keys out of some pocket in his long coat and turned the ABS off. "Alright, get in." He commanded as he took the driver's seat.

"Thank you." The green-eyed teen said as he took a seat in the back of captain Zest's car.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	9. Advancements

The ninth chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**karthik9**, **FateBurn**, **Karou WindStalker**, **Opinr**, **Penny is wise**, **ultima-owner**, **thunder18**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**The 10th Wand**, Hedwig is still around. She's just not doing anything beyond being Harry's pet owl, so there was no need to really involve her in the plot yet. That will, however, change with the story advancing into its second arc soon.  
**Zorobak**, depending on what you define as him kicking ass, it might happen even in this chapter.  
**SonicAnime2010**, I've answered your review via PM.  
**serialkeller**, I wouldn't say that you're entirely correct. The unique nature of his magic system indeed makes it a double-edged sword but Harry will ultimately be the one allows the defeat of (or, at least, greatly assists in defeating) NaghtWal.  
**jgkitarel**, actually, not just those two. ;)  
**Impstar**, Harry achieves another solution to his defense problems for now. And a bit later, with some help from a certain red-eyed silver-haired person of mass destruction, his shields will be finally fixed to work properly against Mid-Childan/Belkan magic.  
**Jose19**, Fate will reappear at the end of next chapter,.. Nanoha would probably as well, given how close those two are.  
**lordamnesia**, yes, Harry will participate in (some) events of the Book of Darkness / Tome of the Night Sky arc.

*** AN**: I'm terribly sorry for the delay, but with a deadline on a major project at my work approaching, I didn't really have either time or inspiration to write much these past few days. Thankfully, I'm more or less done with my part now, so...

Anyhow, with this chapter the introductory arc is finally over. Starting with the next chapter, it's the Book of Darkness / Tome of the Night Sky arc.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

_**Special thanks**_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter  
chapter IX: Advancements**

While he did promise Quint-sensei to practice the moves she had taught him as much as possible, Harry thought he should use the time she was away on her mission to do other things as well. And not all of those were about advancing his magic: he really needed to start looking for an apartment for himself – he couldn't live forever in the Magitek Research Department's hostel, now could he?

And so the young Potter began searching for a place he would call his home in the future. Of course, he couldn't buy a piece of real estate until after he became a soldier for the Bureau and, thus, a legal adult, but that certainly didn't mean he couldn't look for one. And with some help from Kyoko-sensei, he had actually found a few places that had caught his eye.

Out those options, two stood out as the best ones the most. The first of those two was a rather small studio-like flat some ten minutes of bus ride away from the TSAB central offices in the city. The other one was a considerably-bigger – but also noticeably more expensive – four room apartments a bit further away form the offices. And while the second option would eat up almost all of his seed money if he went for it, not to mention it was further from his future place of work, Harry actually liked it more as one day he wanted to have a family, and, well, a family needed a lot of living space...

His problems with real estate aside, the green-eyed teen also continued to work on improving his magic. There were some much needed adjustments to his shooting spells that he needed to implement, yet he had been keeping them on ice because of his martial arts training with Quint-sensei.

He didn't forget about his other, wizarding, magic either, even if it had been a year seen he last used it. A quick experiment, though, showed that with his Linker Core now fully developed casting those spells became hard to the point of impossibility: no matter how much he tried, the most he could produce with lighting charm was a barely-visible glimmer. Other charms he had tried produced similarly-weak results if any at all. But the green-eyed teen couldn't say he was really upset about this: while without doubts it would have been very useful, that magic was definitely not required for his new life on the world of Mid-Childa, and, well...

Finally, since everyone around him kept agreeing on the fact that he was ready for a B-rank test, Harry decided to sign up for one, even if he hadn't passed his C-rank test yet. Hopefully, he will be able to pass this exam on his first try, but he wouldn't be too upset if he didn't.

**~/ *** \~**

Early in the morning of the last day of August, Harry found himself standing on the levee of the Cranagan's coastal district, waiting for his examiners to arrive. The exam itself will be taking place in one of the few adjustable training grounds located on the artificial islands sitting in the bay. The green-eyed teen actually had no idea what environment he will have to operate in during his test and that was making the things even more interesting.

His exam was also supposed to be somewhat unique in a sense that normally it was done by two man teams. But as he was his own team thanks to his status of a special cadet, he will be tackling it all by himself... At least, it was promised to him that the difficulty of the exam will be adjusted to make it manageable for a single mage. Hopefully, he hadn't been deceived.

Half an hour before his exam was scheduled to begin, a car bearing the emblem of the Fourth Ground Forces Academy arrived. Within it there were two junior officers the young Potter had never seen before, along with major Corrado, which was kind of surprising as she was a member of Aerial Tactical Instructor Corps and even now wore the Air Force's white uniform. But as strange as that was, Harry could care less about that as he was just glad to have her – someone he was already familiar with – as the head of the commission that would judge his performance in the exam. How he knew that she was indeed the head of the commission? Well, what else could she be as the highest-ranked officer around?

"Good morning, major." He greeted with a salute.

"Morning, special cadet Potter." Head instructor Corrado returned the greeting. "I take it you will indeed be taking the exam." Upon his nod, she continued: "Now, I shall explain you your task for the exam while the arena itself is being set up." She summoned a holographic display, showing a map of what could have been a random part of a random city. "You will start at the edge of the arena and proceed to the opposite end via route A. There, you will pick an item and return to the starting point via route B." The said routes appeared on the map. "You will be given thirty minutes to complete the task."

"I see..." Harry said. "And my opposition?" He asked then: after all, without something to slow him down considerably, half an hour was an awful lot time for such a simple task.

"There will be a number of drones scattered around the area." Another four displays popped into existence, showing the images of the said drones. "Drones shown on the displays one through three should be destroyed. Drones like those from the display number four, however, should not be harmed." Major explained. "Any questions?" The young Potter thought about it for a few seconds. And while the task presented by itself seemed to be simple enough, a little bit more information about his opposition wouldn't be harmful.

"I have some." He said. "The drones on displays two and four look identical, sans the decals. Are there indeed no other ways to tell them apart? Also, is there anything I can be told about their abilities?"

"This is the information you will have to acquire on your own." Head instructor Corrado replied. The green-eyed teen nodded, even if he wasn't exactly happy about that answer. Then again... Having all of the details about a mission from the very beginning was impossible as well. He was about to say something else, but those thoughts had been pushed into the background when the flat surface of an artificial island shimmered and a replica of a part of a city appeared, seemingly out of nothing. "Yes, those buildings are quite solid, despite being mere mana constructs." Major Corrado said, noticing his surprise. "But even if those aren't truly real, I would still advise against causing too much collateral damage." Harry nodded, somehow not thinking about asking how much that 'too much' was...

* * *

A minute before nine in the morning, the green-eyed teen found himself standing at the entrance into the training grounds where his B-rank exam was taking place. He had the map with the routes he was supposed to follow copied into his device so that he would not make any mistakes and lose points or whatever for wandering away from the course.

Above him, floating right in the air, there was a traffic light much like the one used for the car or motorcycle races. Right now, all 'light' were glaring with red at him, but that would change in a few moments. Indeed, as soon as the clock chimed nine o'clock, the red lights began disappearing one by one. And once the last was gone, three green lights shined, telling him that his exam officially began.

Not planning to waste any time at the start line, Harry headed into the depths of the arena right away. The rubble-covered street created for him, though, wasn't the easiest terrain to run, not to mention that the first drones were already approaching him. These drones looked like an orange-sized gray spheres with a metal spikes protruding from its sides. They were also surrounded by a weak purplish shield. And since these drones were of the kind he was supposed to destroy,..

"**Starfall Shooter!**" The magical bullets did a short work of the flying annoyances. Some of them didn't even get a chance to fire at him. And those that did get such a chance... Well, their shots were slow and easy to dodge, so, of course, Harry ended this first confrontation without taking a single hit.

Advancing a little further into the arena, the green-eyed teen almost ran into a much bigger drone that unexpectedly floated from behind some barricade-like construction. And he had almost punched it into bits, before noticing that it was actually of the kind that he needed to preserve. So, instead, he used this opportunity to run a quick scan on the drone with his device in hopes that it would help him later on.

That done, he continued advancing into the depth of the fake city, the lack of machines coming at him was actually making him more and more cautious with each step he took. It turned out, he wasn't paranoid for nothing. As soon as he took a turn to the next street, he came across a whole group of drones waiting for him. At the center of the group there was a really big one, surrounded by a number of those he shouldn't destroy. And then there were a few of evil counterparts for the 'civilian' drones... Before Harry could really think about how to handle the situation he ran into, he had to take cover as a damn barrage of projectiles was fired in his direction.

Peeking from behind a corner of a building, the green-eyed teen surveyed the area. And almost immediately he noticed that the drones hadn't moved from their position. That was very good as it meant he could give his '**Starfall Shooter**''s bullets the appropriately-curved trajectories and snipe the 'bad' drones without having to leave his cover. Doing just that, he was rewarded by a sounds of the few drones' destruction.

Peeking from behind the corner again, the young Potter saw that the big drone – and the 'civilian' ones, of course – was still around and, apparently, unharmed. That thick armor must have protected the thing from his shooter spell. And what was even worse, he couldn't use his only other ranged offensive spell as it was almost guaranteed to harm the 'civilian' drones as well. This meant that he had to get close and use his fist to destroy the damn thing.

Well, time to put his skills in self-augmentation to test, however incomplete those skills might be. Concentrating hard, Harry willed his mana into his legs, thus making them stronger and able to carry him a little bit faster. Hopefully, that would be enough to dodge the drone's shots as he closed in on it. Especially since the drones, being machines, would be more or less immune to his '**Lumino**' spell, a magical equivalent of a flash-bang grenade...

Dashing out of his hiding spot, the green-eyed teen began zigzagging towards the remaining 'evil' drone. And while at first his increased speed and the distance indeed allowed him to dodge all of the shots sent his way, once he got close enough, he was forced to use his physical armor to protect himself instead. But by then he was only about ten or so yards away, though. Quickly covering that distance, Harry punched the drone's cannons with as much strength as he could muster. That, of course, was nowhere near enough to destroy the drone itself, but it still succeeded in rendering it more or less harmless as it couldn't shoot anymore.

Canceling the augmentation of his legs, he instead concentrated on making his arms stronger – his limit for augmentation so far was just two limbs – and using his increased strength there, he proceeded with raining hits upon the now-unarmed mechanical construct. Which proved to be quite durable as only fourth hit landing on the already weak spot finally managed to damage the drone's armor enough to give Harry an access to its insides. The young Potter wasted no time and used that hole in armor to shoot a few bullets of his '**Starfall Shooter**' right at the exposed vulnerable hardware, thus finally taking the drone out of commission entirely.

Done with the opposition here, Harry continued following the desolated and rubble-covered street leading deeper into the arena...

* * *

Another couple of small fights with weaker types of drones later, he finally arrived to a a small plaza where the object he was supposed to retrieve was located. The said object was a small box the size of a deck of playing cards glowing with purplish light that was lying on a pedestal. Well, at least he needn't search for it... Cautiously approaching the said pedestal, Harry picked the box up and quickly tucked it under the shield strapped to his left hand.

Which was probably a good thing as the next moment he noticed four of the big drones approaching him from different directions. But the young Potter wasn't really scared by those machines as they were still far away, giving him more than enough time to dodge their shots. Plus, as there were no 'civilian' drones around, he could use his more powerful spells in retaliation without fear of being penalized.

"**Solar Flare!**" The green-eyed teen called, summoning his so far most powerful – and now properly-named – spell. However, it had been noticeably upgraded since the time he had tired and failed to use it against Quint-sensei in a spar. The said upgrade made it so that Harry no longer needed to be standing still and holding the 'bullet' more or less in his hand while charging it up. Now he only needed to be within fifteen yards from it. And he also could have more than one shot being prepared at once now... These quite significant improvements made some loss in the spell's power and increased preparation time something that didn't really matter.

Once the grapefruit-sized balls of mana finished building up, they were sent flying towards the drones, one for each. And with some satisfaction, the young Potter watched them actually damage the mechanical baddies to the point where they resembled twisted piles of metal more than anything else. This was the first time he had used the improved version in an actual combat, and the results looked pretty good to him.

Harry didn't have much time to admire the destruction caused by his spells, though: he was short time as he still needed to deliver the box he had picked to the commission before the half of an hour was over. So, after he made sure that there will be no shots fired at his back by some hidden drone, the young Potter entered the 'route B', which would lead him to the finishing line.

* * *

The streets of the 'route B' were just as covered in rubble as any other Harry had seen on this arena, but fighting there was harder as there wasn't as much cover. And the drones that were attacking him, while weak individually, were now coming in waves. Dodging or blocking all of their shots was very hard and the green-eyed teen had actually taken a few hits. Thankfully, none of those did serious enough damage to really hinder him, though, those mostly-superficial wounds did hurt quite a lot.

At long last, though, the young Potter could finally see the finish line. Just a little bit more, and he will be able to complete this exam. Even pass it, if he was fast enough: his fights with the hordes of drones had taken quite a bit of time. And since he obviously wanted to pass, he began running as fast as his heavily-armored barrier jacket would allow him to...

"...And done!" Major Corrado announced as Harry finally crossed the finish line. "That was quite close, special cadet Potter, but you managed to finish the task you've been given in time, with fourteen seconds to spare." The green-eyed teen nodded.

"Well,.. That's what I get from being a ground mage without proper spells to improve my mobility." He commented as he pulled the object he had to retrieve from under his shield and handed it over to one of the Ground Forces' officers that was a part of the commission.

"True." Head instructor Corrado agreed. "And I hope that you are working towards changing that."

"Of course." Harry replied with a nod. While the standard methods of achieving flight hadn't worked for him, he had a theory on how he could achieve a similar effect with what he had. Not to mention that once he had finally mastered the self-augmentation technique Quint-sensei had shown him, he will be able to increase his speed while on the ground at will as well.

"Good." Major Corrado agreed. "Anyhow, seeing as you've managed to accomplish the task you have been given within the allotted time and you did so without accumulating any penalties, I can now congratulate you on passing this exam and officially becoming a B-ranked mage, special cadet Potter."

"Thank you, ma'am!" The green-eyed teen replied, taking to standing at attention.

"Now then..." The lady from the Aerial Tactical Instructor Corps continued. "Why don't you follow lieutenant Mikasa to the car and have your wounds healed?" She asked, nodding towards one of the Ground Forces officers that had been there to observe the exam. "Meanwhile, we will update your personal records." Harry nodded.

"Yes, ma'am." He said, before following lieutenant Mikasa to the improvised field hospital that was organized next to the car the officers had arrived in...

**~/ *** \~**

"Congratulations on your B-rank, Harry." Kyoko and Mary called the instant the green-eyed teen stepped into her office. Apparently, there already was a party going on in here. Well, 'celebration' would probably be a more appropriate way to describe it as it was more or less just the Device Meisters having some tea with greater than usual amounts of confections.

"Thanks. And you already know?" The young Potter responded, surprised by the fact that they already knew about his success. After all, his exam had ended only a little more than an hour ago.

"Yeah, major Corrado had informed me about it almost as soon as the commission agreed on giving you the rank." Kyoko said. There was a rather long pause, before she continued: "However, we were given another reason for celebration even before that." The blond scientist confided. "Earlier this morning, while you were still taking your exam, a message from the headquarters came. They are requesting Mary-chan to join their Engineering Division as a junior Device Meister."

"Oh..." Harry breathed out. While the position itself didn't sound like it was a very important one, his sempai was still hand-picked by the Bureau's headquarters. It looked like the men there thought highly of her skills and potential. "Congratulations!"

"Thank you, Harry." The green-haired girl replied.

"Are you going to accept that offer?" He asked then. After all, being given such an invitation was supposed to be an honor or something like that.

"Well..." She said. "At first I was worried that it will tear me apart from you and from shishou and from everyone else I know here, and..." Well, Mariel was someone who took being separated from her friends quite hard. She had demonstrated it quite well when Amy-sempai had joined warship "Athra"'s crew. Joining a new collective in a different place would certainly be quite a stress for her. "But shishou had reassured me, and now, I think, I will be accepting their offer."

"I'm sure you will do great as a Device Meister no matter where you go. And we're always just a single call away, right?" the young Potter added some reassurance of his own.

"Thank you." Mary replied. There was a rather long pause, before she continued: "Now why don't we celebrate your success with the exam too, Harry?" She asked, almost rhetorically.

**~/ *** \~**

It was the end of the first week of September, year 0065, and at the TSAB headquarters a certain counter admiral was getting uneasy. And the reason for the said uneasiness was the lack of news of a particular kind coming from either non-administered world 97 itself, or from nearby worlds.

Three months, three whole months had passed since the detectors he had left around in the Hayate Yagami's house had informed him about the awakening of the Book of Darkness, yet there were absolutely no signs of the knights hunting mages or even powerful beasts down to collect their Linker Cores and fill the Book's pages. And it was this lack of enemy's activity that made Gil Graham uneasy.

No, the lack of attacks made by the Book's guardian knights by itself was good news. The problem of the counter admiral's stemmed from the fact his plan to forever end the cursed Book required it to reach completion first. Without being able to even predict when that would happen, though... And he couldn't just have a warship stationed on his home planet's orbit at all time without explaining it to his superiors why he needed that. Not that _they_ would understand his plan anyway!..

At least, counter admiral Graham thought, everything else was ready for the sealing of the Book of Darkness: its final master was an orphan girl whom no one important will miss, and so no wars would start over her disappearance; the special device, optimized for freezing and sealing opponents, was crafted; and it's intended wielder, Chrono Harlaown, was eager as ever to have his revenge on the Book and had been trained more or less specifically for that task by the Liese twins, his trusted familiars.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the non-administered world 138, a certain headmaster of a magical school too was deep in his thoughts, even if he wasn't plotting the final end for a world-destroying Lost Logia. Albus Dumbledore, actually, wasn't plotting anything at all. He was just thinking about a student he had lost to an incident and his own mistakes a little over a year ago.

Yes, thirteen months had already passed since young Harry had come in contact with that strange crystal and something had happened to his magic. And the same thirteen months ago he disappeared from the face of the Earth. No matter what magics the aged warlock had tried, he couldn't find even a single trace of him anywhere. But Dumbledore wasn't giving up on his searches yet as he hoped that one day Harry would return to his friends...

That said, the Hogwarts headmaster couldn't help but still be worried about the Potter heir: Dark Lord Voldemort was active again and was preparing his return to the world of the living – that had to be the reason why one of his followers was currently pretending to be this year's DADA professor – and given how obsessed with the certain prophecy Voldemort was, he would not stop until Harry's cold dead body was crushed under his feet. And that was something that should never happen!

Well, Albus thought, Harry was probably safe for now, wherever he was as not even Fawkes the phoenix could reach him. But could it last? Especially since this year Hogwarts would be hosting the revived Triwizard tournament – the Goblet of Fire was a very powerful and dangerous artifact, capable of binding people in magical and nigh-unbreakable contacts without their consent. All that was needed was the said person's name written by their hand.

Dumbledore really hoped that Voldemort didn't know about that, but considering the disguised Death Eater in the castle, he probably did. And planned to used that power of the Goblet to get his revenge against Harry. Either by summoning him and having him participate in the deadly tournament, or by having him suffer the consequences of breaking the contract he didn't even know he was entered in.

Neither of those two things had any right to happen, though, the Hogwarts's headmaster resolved. Harry had the right to live his own life – even if Albus would rather it was here, at his school – and taking that right from him would be nothing short of criminal. Thus, he had to do everything in his power to stop Voldemort's plans regarding the young Potter, whatever they might be, from succeeding.

**~/ *** \~**

It was the middle of September when Harry finally managed to get the self-augmentation technique Quint-sensei had showed him to work properly. Well, at least he was able to use it for his entire body at once now, even though he still needed to devote quite a bit of his concentration to keep it working. That, and he could increase his strength only so much this way...

But, whatever, he finally made that technique work properly for him, and now he could start working on his next big project: learning to create a protective layer of mana around his body. It should give him some additional protection from incoming attacks and, hopefully, provide the base for the spell of his own making that would grant him an ability to fly.

At least in theory. According to his calculations, the surface area of his body was insufficient for that spell to provide the lift required for stable flying. But he could just give himself wings of pure magical energy or something like that to solve that little problem – humans had been dreaming about flying like birds since prehistoric times, after all. Of course, doing something like that sounded like a difficult thing to achieve, but the green-eyed teen was sure that he will be able to pull that off one day.

**~/ *** \~**

Just a few days later, just at the beginning of weekends, Harry was told by Kyoko-sensei that captain Zest's team was back from whatever mission they had been sent onto all the way back in mid-July. In other words, Quint-sensei was back and the lesson she was giving him would resume soon. And the green-eyed teen was eager to see how much he had progressed with his martial arts and magical training since their last meeting. Not to mention, he wanted to know what else the Belkan knight might be willing to teach him.

The said purple-haired beauty contacted him directly via a phone call the next day, scheduling their first-in-a-while meeting to occur on Wednesday next week at the Fourth Ground Forces Academy's training ground number six – the very one they usually used in the past.

* * *

The normal greetings aside, the actual meeting began surprisingly awkwardly: neither Harry himself nor his purple-haired sensei could actually come up with something to say for a good few seconds. Finally, Quint decided to take the charge and broke this somewhat-uneasy silence.

"I heard you have passed your B-rank exam while I was out on my mission?" She asked, receiving a nod from the young Potter in response. "Congratulations on that and on getting one... a few, actually, steps closer to becoming an elite mage."

"Thank you." Harry replied. "And I hope your mission, whatever it was, went well." The purple-haired beauty responded with a shrug.

"You can say that." There was a short pause, before she continued: "Now then, why don't we see, what you've achieved while I was away?" In other words, they were going to have a spar, the one in which they were limited to just martial arts and self-augmentation – after all, those were the things she had been teaching him and his progress in mastering them was what she was interested in.

Their spar didn't last very long as despite all of the advancements he had made, Harry was still nowhere as good when it came to unarmed combat as his sensei. Yet, he had lasted almost two minutes against her and that, in his own eyes, was quite an achievement by itself.

"Well..." Quint began. "I can see that you've improved quite a lot since our last meeting. And while I can't really say that you've mastered the self-augmentation technique already, you are pretty close to achieving that. Likewise, your hand-to-hand combat got better too. I'm actually not sure I can really teach you much anymore; all you need is practice, against different opponents, preferably, the ones using different styles." She said.

"Thank you, sensei." Harry replied, secretly being quite proud that he managed to impress his teacher. He was about to say something more then, but was interrupted by a new voice:

"Found you, Quint-chan." Turning around to look at the source of that voice, the young Potter saw a very youthful – she actually looked like she was still in her late teens – and quite pretty woman with long lavender hair and purple eyes. Her clothes, however, were neither a military uniform nor a barrier jacket. Instead, she was wearing a very civilian pale-yellow dress. ...And one more detail about her: she was quite pregnant, about six or so months along.

"Ah... Hi there, Megane-chan." The purple-haired Belkan knight greeted after a moment of pause. "_This is warrant officer Megane Alpine. She is the third member of my team and specializes in support magic and summoning. Of course, she can... could kick ass in direct combat as well._" She introduced the new-arrived beauty to Harry.

"Good day, warrant officer!" The green-eyed teen greeted then, causing Megane to chuckle.

"Hello there." She greeted back. "And you don't have to greet me like that – I'm off duty and will be like that for a while." The lavender-haired summoner said then, while waving her hand dismissively. Then she communicated something to Quint via telepathy, causing the said knight to blush a little. Whatever response Nakajima-sensei gave her, once again via telepathy, made Megane giggle.

"Alright." The purple-haired beauty interjected sharply. "I've already seen the progress you've made with your martial arts and self-augmentation, Harry." She continued in a gentler voice. "But what about your overall level? She we have another spar, the anything goes one, to see how much you've improved as a whole?" She asked then.

"Okay." The young Potter replied, summoning his barrier jacket back as he switched his device to its active form.

* * *

The end result of that spar was still quite predictable: Harry lost. Though, that certainly didn't mean that he hadn't improved since the last time. Today, he actually managed to surprise Quint-sensei by his new method of charging his shooting spells up, thus landing a good solid hit on her. And he had also made her use her rare skill that allowed her to create solid 'roads' out of mana wherever she pleased, for the first time ever... In other words, he had indeed improved a lot over the last three months.

The purple-haired beauty was quick to admit that too, noting that his current B-rank was well-earned. Still, just like Harry himself had said, his lack of proper mobility skills was becoming a significant weakness, just like his problems with proper magical defenses, without overcoming which he will be hard-pressed to advance through the power ranks further.

Megane had also added her two cents to the assessment of the green-eyed teen's magic prowess. According to her, either through nurture or because of his unique magic system inclination, he was better suited for ranged combat. Thus, while being able to fight efficiently in any situation was great, he should concentrate more on his shooting spells and using them to their full potential... And she actually was quite willing to lend him a hand there... It looked like Harry had gained another teacher to show him the ropes of the magical combat...

**~/ *** \~**

Since Megane, being on the parental leave, had little else to do, she dropped by from time to time and helped with Harry's training. Both by having her personal summon – a humanoid black insectoid called Kuroryuu – act as a sparring partner for the young Potter and by giving him some advices on how he should approach developing his mana control further.

It were actually her instructions that finally allowed the green-eyed teen to properly generate a mana cloak around himself. The said cloak, when tested with a few D-rank and even C-rank shooting spells, proved itself to be a pretty reliable defense, as it significantly weakened the incoming attacks. This made Harry quite happy: he loathed being a glass cannon, but couldn't really change it until now as his '**Lesser Aegis**' shield was quite useless at stopping any magic thrown its way.

Anyhow, with his mana cloak finally mastered by the middle of October, Harry began working on giving himself wings and, subsequently, the ability to fly. But, of course, extending his mana away from his body was not easy, even without molding it into some complicated shapes. And the further away from his body the young Potter tried to project his magical energy, the harder controlling it was. Not to mention that since it all was raw mana manipulation, his device couldn't help him any with it... But he wasn't going to give easily, not when he was so close to achieving the coveted ability to fly!

* * *

Three weeks. That's how much time it took Harry to finally understand how he should manipulate his mana into more or less stable forms extending away from his body. But he finally succeeded! And now he could give himself 'wings'... Well, those actually looked like prolonged rectangles sticking out of his back – a pair of bigger ones forming the upper, main, wings; and another, smaller, pair creating additional, lower, ones – but it was still some major progress.

Now, all that was left for him to do was actually making his wings generate some lift. And, of course, learning to fly without devoting all of his mind's power to that: after all, what use his flight would be in combat if it prevented him from using any spells to actually fight? The green-eyed teen, though, was sure that he will manage to overcome that problem as well, just like he had it with many other before. Thus, he delved into his training with even greater passion than ever before.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	10. The first mission

The tenth chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**FateBurn**, **puma1sunfire**, **Fellow**, **lordamnesia**, **Opinr**, **karthik9**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Jose19**, I've answered your review via PM.  
**Impstar**, **celf**, hehe. This chapter should answer that question.  
**LuxEterna1**, he will switch to that modus operandi later on when he has greater understanding of how exactly his magic system works. Right now Harry is just not willing to 'experiment' as any mistake can result in huge collateral damage and, possibly, a few deaths.  
**SonicAnime2010**, the answer for the first part of your review is the same with the one I gave to **Impstar **and** celf**. As for the test, the drones are the same as seen in episode one of StrikerS. This should answer your review as well, **ultima-owner**.  
**Ranmaleopard**, Harry will be the one to propose the solution to the NachtWal problem that doesn't require Reinforce to sacrifice herself. But Hayate will remain as her mistress. Rein will also eventually gain a romantic interest in Harry, but that will happen only after a few months of just friendship between them... Which would be somewhere closer to the end of this arc.  
**serialkeller**, no, Harry will not be bound by the Goblet this time around.  
**Penny is wise**, he will.  
**Jerrac**, well, the plot kicks off this chapter... Though the real action will begin only in the next one.  
**Guest**, so, having a Lost Logia that provides him with nearly-infinite mana without any drawbacks (aside from a crystal being stuck in his chest) is not enough? Well, I think I will have Harry keep his parseltongue ability, which can actually be considered a Rare Skill.

*** AN**: The Book of Darkness / Tome of the Night Sky arc begins!

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

_**Special thanks**_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter  
chapter X: The first mission**

Albus Dumbledore wanted to congratulate himself on a ensuring that the selection of the Triwizard tournament champions went without any problems. Indeed, exactly three champions were chosen – one for each of the three schools taking part in the tournament – and all of them had been in the Great hall of Hogwarts when their names had appeared out of the Goblet's flames.

That, of course, didn't mean that no attempts to rig the champion selection results were made. There was an actually significant number of too young to participate students trying to enter their names into the Goblet. But those didn't really have any chances of being selected anyway... More worrisome was the fact that the disguised Death Eater had also tried to put someone's name into the Goblet, while laying some additional charms onto it.

And while Dumbledore had no proof of it, he was still quite sure that the fake DADA professor tried to make Harry Potter into an unwilling and _fourth_ champion of the tournament. And was Harry actually there, in the castle, and attending the classes with his classmates, that would have worked... Thankfully, the Goblet would choose only those who had written their names themselves, and Albus made sure to remove any and all papers bearing the young Potter's signature from the school's archives.

Still, it was too early for old warlock to relax. Not only he still had a Death Eater in his school, masquerading as a DADA professor, but the said man's attempt to tamper with the champions' selection was a proof enough that the Dark Lord was planning something grand, something that would likely plunge the world into the Darkness again. And, of course, Dumbledore as the leader of the Light had to prevent that from happening.

But knowing nothing about what his opponents were planning, how could he do anything to stop them? Thus, no matter how much he loathed it, Albus had to allow a known criminal who had never repented for his sins to walk among the children of his school, so that he could get a glimpse of the Dark Lord's plans through that man. And the aged warlock really hoped that no one would end up hurt or worse because of that... Every victory had to paid for in blood, but that blood had to be of warriors and adults, not of innocent children...

**~/ *** \~**

It was near the end of November when Harry finally got to the point where he could maintain his flight almost subconsciously. At least, for as long as he was just hovering above the same spot. Moving around still required some concentration, but certainly not to the same degree it did when he first managed to take off. Back then even a single stray thought might have become a big problem for him; now... Now he could even shoot and reliably hit stationary targets while doing some simpler aerobatics!

Hell, even his wings reflected just how much he had progressed. Whereas in the beginning those looked more like a bunch of prolonged rectangles sticking out of his back, by now his 'wings', both upper and lower pairs, became much more streamlined and actually resembled falcon wings. And given that his mana was naturally pale-blue, almost white in color, both Kyoko-sensei and Quint-sensei had joked that when he was flying, he looked a lot like an angel.

Yet, despite all of the progress he had made with his flight technique, the young Potter knew that a proper aerial fight would still be a little too much for him. For now, at least...

Anyway, gaining 'wings' wasn't the only thing Harry had accomplished in these past weeks. He had finally graduated from his special cadet program in the middle of November and joined the Mid-Childan Ground Forces' 95th Battalion as a Private Second Class shortly afterwards. Well, that's how it was on the paper. In reality, he continued training under Kyoko-sensei and Quint-sensei and appeared in his unit's headquarters only for the events that required his attendance.

**~/ *** \~**

It was December the fourth when counter admiral Gil Graham finally got his confirmation that the knights deployed by the Book of Darkness were finally on the move. The said confirmation came in the form of a battle the aforementioned knights fought against the mages stationed aboard of warship "Arthra" and one civilian collaborator from the non-administered world 97.

The said civilian collaborator, a girl named Takamachi Nanoha from Uminary city, Japan, ended up seriously wounded and got her Linker Core absorbed into the Book. According to the doctors, though, she will make a full recovery in just a couple of weeks.

What had surprised the counter admiral, though, was the apparent reluctance to kill the Book's knights had displayed. The Takamachi girl wasn't the first victim of the knights: the observation group stationed on the planet had been attacked earlier the same day, and neither of those two mages had been killed either... It was almost like Hayate Yagami – the current, and hopefully the last, mistress of the Book of Darkness – had made the knights swear an oath not to kill.

If that was indeed so, sacrificing the girl would be an even more terrible and despicable thing to do. Yet, no matter the circumstances, it had to be done: no matter how kind its mistress was, once the Book was completed, it would turn into an uncontrollable berserk that would indiscriminately attack everything in front of it. And simply destroying it was useless as the Book would just recreate itself on a different world to continue this cycle of death and destruction. It had to be sealed, which was what counter admiral planned to do with Chrono Harlaown's hands.

Still, sealing the berserk Book of Darkness required that monster to be defeated first, and that was not something a single mage could do. Hell, even the entire combat-capable crew of warship "Arthra" with addition of the Takamachi girl – a very strong mage all by herself – wasn't guaranteed to win that fight. More manpower was needed to contain the Book while Chrono was sealing it away,..

Yet, because of the various reasons related to the Bureau's internal politics and the chain of command, counter admiral Graham couldn't provide that manpower. He was already pushing it by issuing an order to activate the Arc-en-Ciel cannon aboard of "Arthra". Having another warship or a powerful team of enforcers to support them would immediately launch an investigation into his doings and ultimately ruin his plan to end that world-destroying monstrosity forever.

But he wasn't giving up yet: he knew there had to be something he could do to increase the chances of the Book being sealed successfully. He just needed to find out what that something was... If known powerhouses were out of question, what about those that hadn't earned themselves a reputation yet? Having some of those temporarily join the "Arthra"'s crew wouldn't attract as much attention and the plan to forever end the Book of Darkness might still survive intact. Now he just needed to find such mages... Which was not as easy as it sounded: those that fit the bill for power were extremely rare and they never remained unknown for long.

Still, Gil Graham wasn't about to give up just yet. So, he began looking through the Bureau's databases in hopes of finding a powerful mage or two that had joined the ranks recently and hadn't made a name for themselves. And it looked like Lady Luck was on his side: private second class Harry Potter of the Mid-Childan Ground Forces' 95th Battalion looked like a good candidate. He had graduated from the cadet program less than a month ago and thus had no chance to acquire a major reputation for himself yet. And the unique nature of his magic that allowed his spells to more or less ignore standard defenses meant that even the planet-killed monster that the Book of Darkness will turn into upon its completion would be susceptible to his attacks...

Now that he thought about it, wasn't Mr. Potter that boy with a reactor-type Lost Logia stuck in his chest that the investigatory ship "Leto" had found on one of the non-administered worlds a year and a half ago? Yes, that actually was him... And that certainly made getting him to temporarily join "Arthra"'s crew more challenging, but counter admiral Graham was sure that he will be able to do that. How?.. Well, he wasn't sure yet.

**~/ *** \~**

Even though he did buy himself that four rooms apartment as soon as he became a Bureau's soldier and a legal adult, Harry still lived in the room at the Magitek Research Department hostel – his new apartment needed a lot of new furniture and some other renovations which he didn't have money for at the moment. And while his new salary was far from bad, it would still take months if not a few years before he could finally move into that apartment... Thankfully, Kyoko-sensei didn't mind him still living at the hostel even if he technically wasn't a member of the department anymore...

Anyhow, December the sixth for the young Potter began more or less like any other morning would: with an alarm clock, at six in the morning. Shaking himself awake, Harry donned his training clothes and headed outside for some jogging and other _light_ physical training. Light for the magic users of this world, that is... Whatever the case might be, the green-eyed teen was back to his room in about an hour, and a long hot shower later, he was finally ready to begin his day.

Which, of course, meant checking his inbox for any new post first. And he was a bit surprised to see a letter from Quint among the rest of his correspondence – the purple-haired Belkan Knight usually called him on a videophone if there was something they needed to talk about. Opening the letter, Harry immediately understood why she would use mail instead of just making a call:

Featured prominently in the message there was a photo of a tired but definitely happy Megane sitting in a bed in some random room at a hospital, holding her newborn daughter, Lutecia, in her hands. And Harry couldn't help but agree with Quint-sensei that 'little Lulu' might just be the most adorable thing in the whole damn world!

Smiling again at the scene depicted on the photo, the green-eyed teen began writing a congratulatory letter to Megane, who had become a good friend of his over the course of the last few months, wishing the very best to her and her little Lutecia.

**~/ *** \~**

"So... What did captain Steinmetz want from you today?" 'Doctor' Chidori asked as Harry walked into her laboratory in the early afternoon of December the fourteenth. This was the first time the green-eyed teen had been summoned to the unit's headquarters without a prior warning, so, naturally, his sensei was quite interested in what the commanders wanted from her student.

Instead of replying verbally, though, the young Potter merely handed her an official-looking paper he had been holding in his hands until now. Printed on that paper there was an order from the Ground Forces' higher-ups that basically told Harry to pack his things up and depart for the TSAB headquarters in the Dimensional Space. And once there, he was supposed to (temporarily) join the crew of a warship "Arthra", once its upgrade was complete.

"Oh..." Was all that Kyoko-sensei could say. Seeing this order was as big a surprise for her as it must have been for the green-eyed teen himself. While sudden transfers between the different branches of military like this one did happen, they were quite rare. And for one to target a person who had been an actual soldier for barely a month was almost unheard of. The lack of proper explanation as to why this transfer was happening also made the whole thing at least a little bit suspicious...

"Well, at least Amy-sempai will be there, right?" Harry finally spoke.

"Yeah, she will." 'Doctor' Chidori said as she nodded in response, while also handing the papers back. The blond scientist could see how changing collectives he working with so suddenly would be a great stress for her student. Having a familiar face aboard "Arthra" would certainly make the transition easier for him... Alas, there wasn't much if anything she herself could do to help him.

"Sensei?" Harry said after a long and uneasy pause. "You know that I have a pet owl, Hedwig, right?" Kyoko nodded – it was to forget such an unusual pet, even if it was months since she had last seen the bird. "Can you take care of her while I'll be gone?" He asked then.

"If nobody else agrees, I can look after her, but..." Kyoko replied. She was a bit allergic and while short-time exposures were okay with her, being stuck in the same apartment with an owl for God known how long would not be exactly a good thing for her. Even if Hedwig would without any doubts be out hunting most of the time.

"Thank you, sensei." The green-eyed teen while mentally ordering his device to send Quint a message that he wanted to talk to her as soon as possible: calling her directly would be a bad idea since as an investigator her workload was ...fluctuating. That, and distracting her from doing her job would be a very thing...

* * *

The young Potter was quite surprised when the purple-haired Belkan knight rang him up in less than an hour. Then again, because of how erratic her work hours were, one couldn't tell, whether she was done for the day already or had just woken up.

"You wanted to speak with me, Harry?" She asked.

"Well... You see..." The green-eyed teen said, before doing his best to explain her the sudden order he had been given this morning. And much like Kyoko-sensei prior to her, Quint found the whole thing to be rather suspicious: the newbies normally weren't transferred around so suddenly. Especially across the military branches and to warships that already had complete crews... But she didn't say anything about it out aloud. Not to mention that she had her hands still full with the still-recent theft of the Shroud of the Saint King from the Church and could not launch an investigation of her own into this matter.

"So... You want a piece of advice on how act in this situation?" She asked instead. After all, as an investigator she had worked alongside with many many different people.

"That too..." Harry replied after a short pause. "However, originally, I wanted to ask, whether you and your family can take care of pet owl while I'm away at "Arthra". Hedwig might be quite self-sufficient, but..." He trailed off there. Still, Quint got what he wanted to say.

"Well, I don't see any problems with that." She said with a nod. "And I think it will do my little girls good to have some responsibility too... So, bring your owl over when you have time – I'm staying at home for the next two days."

"Thank you, sensei." The young Potter thanked, before asking: "Speaking of your girls, how are they? It has been quite some time since I've seen them last."

"Same as always,.." The purple-haired beauty replied with a shrug. "Ginga still tries to pretend that she's an adult already and Subaru is still just as much of a crybaby as you probably remember her to be." Well, yeah, when outside of martial arts training under her mother little Subaru could be seen with tears in her eyes a lot. And she was relying on others to support her or help her out quite often too.

"Good to hear that they both are alright..." Harry replied with a shrug of his own. "Anyway, thank you again, sensei. I'll drop by with Hedwig tomorrow morning, if that's okay with you." Quint nodded.

"We'll be waiting."

**~/ *** \~**

The next day, Harry found himself standing in front of the Nakajima residence's door. The green-eyed teen knew that he definitely wasn't giving his almost-familiar, Hedwig, away forever, but for whatever reason he still hesitated to ring the bell... And the said owl's desire to stay close to him – she had absolutely refused to go into her cage and rode all the way here perched on his shoulder – wasn't really helping him any. Still, with his shuttle to the Bureau's headquarters a little more than three hours away from now, he needed to get moving.

Taking deep breath to steel himself, the young Potter rand the doorbell. There were maybe fifteen seconds of silence, before he heard the sound of the locks being unlocked. Another few moments later the door opened, revealing Quint in ...some very homy clothes, with her hair down as well. And given that this was the first time Harry had seen her in anything other than her Ground Forces' uniform or her knight's armor...

"Come in, come in." The purple-haired beauty invited him inside, making the young Potter snap out of his momentary stupor from seeing her dressed so casually... Accepting the invitation, Harry stepped inside the apartment, immediately noticing the two daughters of the Nakajima family peeking from behind the corridor's corner, curiosity burning in their eyes. "So, this is your pet owl?" Quint continued meanwhile. "She's quite a beauty." Upon hearing that, Hedwig let out a haughty bark.

"Quint-chan, are you having more guests?" A new voice from within the depth's of the apartment. And the green-eyed teen recognized that voice as ...Megane's? Indeed, a few moments later the Belkan summoner appeared in his view, her little daughter in her hands. "Oh, hello there, Harry." She greeted then as he eyed drifted towards the snowy owl perched on his shoulder, something that didn't go unnoticed by Hedwig.

"Good morning." The young Potter greeted back, before turning to Quint, as he continued: "Where can I place these?" He asked then, while nodding towards his owl's cage and other related things he was holding in his hands.

"Hm..." The purple-haired knight replied thoughtfully. "Why don't you leave them in the girls' room?" Nodding, Harry kicked off his shoes and followed the lady of the house into the apartment – which actually was surprisingly modest, considering that Quint herself was a very successful investigator and her husband was a Ground Forces captain, almost a major actually...

Soon the two of them were standing in the room belonging to Ginga and Subaru. Which didn't quite look like Harry imagined a girl's room to be. Then again, the two daughters of the Nakajima family weren't your average princess-like girls... If anything, those two were destined to be the future magical martial arts experts. And it showed.

"I'll ask you to keep the window open at all times so that Hedwig can return to her perch whenever she wants to." The young said as he placed the cage onto the windowsill and began arranging other owl-care supplies there. "She'll normally hunt for her food herself, somewhere." He continued. "So all that you will need to do is make sure that she has some water waiting for her. And clean the cage once in a while." Quint nodded: so far, taking care of an owl didn't sound like something overly complicated. Ginga and Subaru who were currently standing in the doors of their room probably thought something along the same lines.

"Alright." The purple-haired knight said. "Anything else?"

"Nothing that I can think of right now." Harry replied. "But if something happens, you know how to contact me." Quint nodded again. There was a rather lengthy pause, before the young Potter continued: "And once again thank you for agreeing to look after my Hedwig while I'm away."

"Don't worry about that, I'm sure your owl won't be a bother to us, she seems to be a very clever bird." His sensei replied. Her two daughters nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

"She can be quite stubborn too, though..." The green-eyed teen commented as he did his best to get his 'pet' to leave her current perch, his shoulder, much to the said owl's displeasure. "Now, be a good girl and listen to Quint-sensei and Ginga-chan and Subaru-chan." He said to Hedwig as he finally managed to pry her off himself. "And don't worry, I'll be back before you know." The owl let out a displeased hoot and defiantly showed her backside to Harry, before taking off and flying out of the window. Quint seemed to find the whole scene to be amusing, if her giggle was anything to go by.

"Will you be leaving now then, Harry?" She asked next. The green-eyed teen nodded in response.

"Probably." He said with a shrug. "My shuttle to the TSAB headquarters is in less than three hours, and I better not be late for it."

"Good luck then." The purple-haired knight said as she gave Harry a one-handed hug. "Make sure to bring us some interesting story about your adventures out there." His only response, though, was an embarrassed smile.

"Already leaving?" Megane, who had somehow sneaked into the room without Harry and, apparently, even Quint herself noticing it, asked. "But what about us? You haven't even said 'hello' to Lulu yet."

"Alright, alright." The green-eyed teen said as he walked up to her. There was no hug between them, though. Instead, the lavender-haired beauty conveyed her deep trust in him by letting him carefully take her young into his hands... Little Lutecia looked so small and fragile, even in his hands, yet... "She's beautiful." Harry whispered.

"She likes you." Megane said in a whisper. Though, how she could tell that, he'd never know as 'Lulu' was soundly asleep. Probably something to do with a link connecting a mother and her child... Giving the pretty summoner a soft smile, the young Potter carefully returned little Lutecia to her mother.

He then knelt in front of Ginga and Subaru and balled his hands into fists. It took the girls maybe a couple of seconds, but when they finally got what he wanted, they quite eagerly bumped their fists with his ones, bringing a chuckle out of their mother.

"Now, be good girls and take care of my Hedwig while I'm away." He said. "And I'll be back with some interesting stories for you... Uhm... Soon." Dammit, he really had no idea for how long he will be away: all that his orders said was that he will be temporarily joining warship "Arthra"'s crew...

"Of course!" The two daughters of the Nakajima family chorused. Giving them a smile as he ruffled their hair a bit, Harry stood up and looked at his watch. Somehow, his saying goodbyes took much more time than he imagined. No, he wasn't late for his shuttle yet, but he better be going now if he wanted to still be on time.

"Alright." The green-eyed teen said. "I'm sorry to cut this short, but I really have to go now."

"Sure." Quint said with a nod. "Let us see you off then."

**~/ *** \~**

Some eight hours later, Harry found himself in the huge internal docks of the Bureau's headquarters, looking at warship "Arthra". He'd have entered it and introduced himself to his new colleagues already, but all of the warship's entrances were sealed and, according to the foreman, the captain and her men were away on a meeting with one of the counter admirals at the moment. Thus, all the young Potter could do was waiting... And not knowing when captain Harlaown will be back, he couldn't even go and have a live meeting with Mariel-sempai!

Still, he did give her a videocall and had a small chat with her... Which ended with him listening to a very interesting story about two intelligent devices requesting the installation of the Cartridge system so that they could better protect their masters. Despite the fact that Mid-Childan devices of really any kind were not meant to work with Belkan technology. Still, Mary said she had installed the requested components into those devices and, according to the reports she received from their owners, they were performing exceptionally so far.

The young Potter wasn't sure for how long he had been waiting, but, eventually, captain Lindy Harlaown showed up – given her distinctive long tealish-green hair, she was not someone you could easily miss. And yes, once he had gotten over his initial shock about being transferred, Harry did some research on whom he will be serving under in the foreseeable future. According to what he managed to dig up, she was a reasonable authority figure, sometimes said to be too kind even, but still a very effective commander. Anyway...

"Good day, captain." Harry saluted as Lindy Harlaown, followed by the rest of warship "Arthra"'s crew – among whom the young Potter could spy the captain's son and enforcer-in-training Chrono – got close enough. Lindy paused for a moment, before replying with a salute of her own.

"You must be Harry Potter." She said. "Counter admiral Graham said that you will be joining my crew for the duration of our current mission." Judging by her tone, though, she wasn't sure she agreed with her superior about this new addition to the crew. "Anyway..." She continued as she used her authority to unseal the warship. "I'm sorry but your briefing will have to wait for a little bit, we need to make sure that all systems aboard of "Arthra" are working fine after her refitting. You can settle in in your room, meanwhile. Chrono will show you your quarters." She finished, while looking at her son – who despite supposedly being as old as Harry himself was, looked more like he was about ten.

"Of course, _captain_. Follow me, Potter-san." The maybe-teen enforcer-in-training said. Then, without really waiting for Harry to gather his belongings, he headed inside the warship...

* * *

It was only after "Arthra" finally set sails a couple of hours later when the young Potter was finally invited to the briefing room for, well, his briefing. The said room, much like the one he had seen aboard of "Leto", was a spacious hall with a long rectangular table in the center. Right now, though, out of many chairs around the table, only two were occupied by both Harlaowns. Lindy was actually having a cup of... – was that green tea with milk? – in front of her.

"Alright, shall we begin our meeting?" She asked, once Harry took a seat at the table. Upon his nod, the teal-haired Dimensional Navy officer continued: "Have you been informed about the nature of our current mission?" The young Potter shook his head.

"No. I was only informed that I will be joining your crew for the time being, ma'am." Lindy sucked in her breath, somewhat annoyed by how secretive the higher-ups can be.

"Hm... Let me first ask you what you know about Lost Logia then."

"Considering that I have one stuck in my chest, I did some research on the topic." Harry replied.

"Yeah, your file does mention that you have class three reactor type one merged with your body." There was a short pause, before the teal-haired captain continued: "Then, I'm sure you've heard about one called 'the Book of Darkness', hm?" Yes, since it was one of the most documented Lost Logia, Harry had read more than a few entries about it during his research.

"Class one Lost Logia that is responsible for the destruction of a number of inhabited worlds in the past?" He asked cautiously, already fearing the direction this 'briefing' was taking. This time, it actually was Chrono, who answered him.

"Yes." The enforcer-in-training replied as an image of a thick leather-bound tome with a Belkan cross on its cover appeared above the center of the table. "And it appears that the Book of Darkness has resurfaced yet again. This time on the non-administered world 97. We do not know who is the Book's master yet, but we've seen all four of its guardian knights." The image of the tome was then replaced by photos of four people.

One of them was a rather tall blue-eyed woman with long pink hair in a high ponytail. She was wearing pink and silver battle dress and her armed device looked like a single-edged sword. The second knight had the appearance of a preteen girl with her red hair made into two braids. Her clothes consisted of a blood-red battle dress and a red hat, while her weapon of choice was a metallic hammer. The third of the four knights was a woman with short blond hair, who was wearing a greenish dress and a matching hat. She had no visible armed device. The final knight was actually a familiar, whose human form looked like a tall and well-muscled man with tanned skin and bluish-white hair. He was wearing a sleeveless blue jacket, blue pants with a chain hanging from a thick red belt and a pair of heavily-armored gauntlets.

"Now." Lindy Harlaown continued. "Our job is to prevent the guardian knights from completing the Book – which requires them to drain Linker Cores of defeated mages or more powerful magic-capable beasts – and unleashing it upon the planet."

"With all due respect, ma'am." Harry interjected. "I'm afraid, I'm not exactly the right person to be assisting you on this mission. I don't have any experience when it comes to actual combat, and I'm seriously lacking when it comes to defense."

"Unfortunately, our superiors think differently." The teal-haired captain replied. "I will admit that the recorded ability of your shooting spells to pierce all standard shields and protective barriers of both Mid-Childan and Belkan systems does sound like something that can be very useful for our mission, but... Like you yourself said, you are simply not ready to enter the combat against the opponents of the Book's guardian knights' caliber." She made a short pause, before continuing: "Which is why I won't be sending you into the field unless there is absolutely no other way. However, you might find yourself doing other jobs that will assist our main fighters. And in case we fail to stop the Book from being completed..." Here she trailed off.

"I see..." Harry breathed out. "I thank you for your understanding, ma'am. I shall do my best to ensure the success of your mission."

**~/ *** \~**

Warship "Arthra" was already en route to the non-administered world 97 – an alternative Earth – when they received a call from Amy Limietta, the officer currently in charge of the forces left back there on the planet. Harry didn't hear what exactly his sempai had said to captain Harlaown, but as soon as the call was over, "Arthra" immediately changed her course and headed for an uninhabited mostly-desert planet in a nearby dimensional fold instead. Apparently, a fight between the Book's guardian knights and two of the Bureau agents was happening there.

By the time the warship finally reached that world, though, the fight was already over and a jamming barrier that prevented any forms of communication with the combatants was gone as well. And not a minute after "Arthra" settled on the planet's orbit, the bridge received a request for a transfer from the surface. Along with a request to get the medical bay ready, unfortunately.

And since the ship was operating with the minimal possible crew at the moment and Harry himself was not occupied by something more important, he was ordered to help getting the wounded fighters from the transportation chamber to the medical bay by the captain. The young Potter didn't really mind this though: he higher-ups had transferred him there so that he could help the crew with whatever mission they had and, well... not doing anything while everyone else was busy just didn't sit right with him...

Thus the green-eyed teen found himself moving towards the transportation chamber as fast as he could without actually breaking into run. And despite the said chamber being pretty close to the bridge, he still arrived there only moments before the agents who had requested the transfer teleported in.

These agents turned out to be a pair of women – actually, a woman and a preteen girl – and they both were someone whom Harry had seen before, even if just once. The orange-haired woman with canine ears was no one other than Testarossa's familiar, Arf. And while she sported quite a few bruises and some minor cuts, not to mention being more or less on her last legs, she still looked much better than her mistress, whom she was carrying in her arms: Fate was unconscious and her battered form looked a whole lot paler than was healthy.

But before he could voice his surprise at seeing those two here, "Arthra"'s nurse arrived at the scene and snapped him out of it. By ordering him to take the Testarossa girl off her familiar's hands and carry her to the medical bay, while she herself assisted the orange-haired dog-girl there.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	11. The battle begins

The eleventh chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**Impstar**, if you are talking about Fate and Arf, Harry watched their trial with Quint. If you are talking about Subaru and Ginga... Harry meeting them so far had been happening off-screen but was still mentioned in the story.  
**chm01**, **ultima-owner**, **keeper of all lore**, **FateBurn**, **Teucrian**, **karthik9**, **Jose19**, **serialkeller**, **Opinr**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **Ranmaleopard**, **thunder18**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**celf**, **HolyKnight5**, canonically, the familiar creation ritual in "Nanoha" is never described. And truth to be said, I kinda forgot about it when I plotted Hedwig's life...  
**roanoak**, **Guest #1**, Book of Darkness absorbs Linker Cores. In Harry's case, while it is closely connected to his own Lost Logia, those two aren't the same. So the Book won't absorb his Logia as well, just his Core... Not that even that will happen.  
**SonicAnime2010**, no, Voldie will be allowed to run Harry-free for a few more arcs. He is scheduled to face the might of Mages/Knights in the fifth one, and we've barely started the second. Though, the third will also be taking place on Harry's home world.  
**Guest #2**, eh? Didn't he get one like three chapters ago? Granted, his doesn't have cartridge system (yet), but... Let's be honest, his is built based on Mid-Childan technology, and Raising Heart and Bardiche are the first Mid-Childan devices to have that system. It is only after their success that every device you come across gains a cartridge system.

*** AN**: The first part of the battle against the Berserk Defense Program. Unfortunately for you - and here I totally agree with my beta - Harry sits it out while doing other duties assigned to him by Lindy. Yet this is actually quite reasonable as he is not seen as someone ready to combat that monster. Remember, he is a nearly-defenseless rookie with no proper combat experience. Just because his spells are able to penetrate standard shields he isn't automatically the perfect frontline fighter. By the end of the chapter, though, he joins the 'main' fight anyway (which will be happening in the next chapter).

Also, just like I've promised, good Reinforce makes her appearance in this chapter.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

_**Special thanks**_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter  
chapter XI: The Battle begins**

Harry had barely stepped out of the medical bay after he carried Testarossa there, when a white-and-brown blur collided with him, almost knocking him off his feet. The said blur turned out to be a ten years old girl with blue eyes and brown hair made into a side-tail; she was wearing a barrier jacket that looked like a white dress with blue accents. This girl then mumbled something about being sorry, before disappearing into the medical bay.

"What was that?" The young Potter breathed out, still confused by what had just happened.

"I guess, you've just met Nanoha-chan, Harry." Captain Lindy Harlaown said as she came into his view. The green-eyed teen wasn't exactly sure why she was there, but if he were to guess, she just wanted to be reassured that her subordinates were fine.

"She seemed to be way to energetic to be in a need of medical attendance." He observed. Indeed, anyone who could rush anywhere like that couldn't possibly be seriously wounded or whatever. Though, now that he thought about it, she too looked like she had been through a fight.

"No, not this time..." Lindy replied. "However, she is very worried about her friend." Being far from stupid, Harry could easily connect the dots: this Nanoha girls was friends – very good friends – with Testarossa. Though, he wasn't sure how that could be possible as only Testarossa and her familiar had been judged in the aftermath of the Jewel Seed incident... Captain Harlaown noticed his confusion. "Yeah, those two are really close nowadays. As for how that came to be... Well... It's not really my story to tell." She said, implying that at some point in the past Nanoha and Fate had been enemies.

"O-okay..." Harry breathed out, not really knowing what else he could say in response to that. There was a lengthy pause, before he spoke again: "And, you know,.. After today I don't really know what to think about Testarossa-san anymore. I mean, how can someone who – according to the reports – had put the lives of an entire planet in danger be so small and, dare I say, fragile?" Lindy furrowed her brows a bit, apparently not happy with the way he was seeing the blond girl in question.

"Once again, this is not my story to tell." She said after a short pause. "But, Fate-chan didn't collect the Jewel Seeds because she wanted to hurt anyone. Quite the contrary, actually. It's just, the person who had her doing that wasn't... the most considerate one, when it comes to... shall we say, collateral damage." Another pause. "And you are right, triple-A rank mage she might be, Fate-chan is still just a girl, and a one that didn't have exactly the happiest upbringing too."

"I see,.." Harry said quietly. Should what captain Harlaown had just said be true, then he might really be unreasonably prejudiced against the Testarossa girl. And considering that he might end up working alongside with her, he probably should discard everything he had heard about her past actions and his own interactions with her show him just what kind of a person Fate Testarossa was...

"Alright." Lindy said then. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to check on Fate-chan's condition." The green-eyed teen responded with a nod as he courteously stepped aside, thus completely unblocking the doors leading into the medical bay.

"I'll be on the bridge, if you need me, captain." He added then. While getting the full story of what had happened during the Jewel Seeds incident, including the motivations of those who took parts in it, seemed like an important thing to do if he wanted to understand Testarossa-san, right now was definitely not the best time for such 'interrogations'...

Unfortunately for the young Potter, it will be quite some time before he would finally get his chance to hear the true and complete account of those events. After all, being a citizen of a non-administered world, Nanoha-san didn't live aboard of "Arthra", and Fate-san had her own masquerade with the local muggles to keep up, so she too left the warship once the nurse had declared her to be in a good-enough physical health. As for the rest of the crew... Well... All of them, even Amy-sempai, turned out to be quite tight-lipped about the incident. In the end, Harry hadn't learned much that could help him truly understand Testarossa-san from them.

**~/ *** \~**

Four days after the battle on that uninhabited desert planet the name of which Harry didn't even bother to memorize, the "Arthra"'s crew was re-joined by one more mage. A civilian collaborator originating from Mid-Childa, who had been researching the Book of Darkness in the Infinite Library within the Bureau headquarters until now.

Despite already being an accomplished adventuring archeologist and a researcher, this mage, Yuuno, was still just a boy no older than ten. He had green eyes and dark-blonde hair and was dressed in what could be best described as cream and green nomadic tunic with brown cloak thrown over it. Then again, he was a member of a well-known nomadic Scrya clan, which had produced many revered archeologists and historians...

Yuuno's arrival and the subsequent round of introductions, though, were probably the only highlight of the week. The guardian knights of the Book of Darkness had seemingly disappeared without a trace and not once were they caught sneaking anywhere to hunt for more Linker Cores. And while their lack of activity was probably a good thing as it certainly gave Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san the time they needed to recover and get ready for the next encounter, it was still worrisome.

In Harry's personal experience, such prolonged periods of calm often occurred before everything went to Hell. He, of course, really hoped that his gut feeling was wrong and nothing really bad would happen, but still... And, what was even worse, his uneasiness seemed to be shared by quite a few other mages aboard of "Arthra". And the fact that Christmas was coming didn't help either: for whatever reason, the bad things just so loved to happen during the holidays...

* * *

"Captain!" Amy called as a good part of the sensors left by them on the planet surface suddenly went completely silent at about six in the evening on the Christmas eve. "There is a powerful communication jamming barrier deployed over the city!" There was a second-long pause, before she continued: "If my estimations are correct, it should be centered around the Uminari city hospital." That was certainly the worst possible location for the battle to take place, everyone thought.

"Can you locate Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan?" Lindy asked then. "They said they wanted to visit their friend, some girl named Hayate Yagami, at the hospital this afternoon." There was longer pause as the communication systems aboard of "Arthra" tried to reach those two girls.

"No." Amy finally reported. "It appears that they are currently within that barrier." Captain Harlaown gritted her teeth. Either the Book's guardian knights were getting desperate and attacked a civilian hospital with both Nanoha and Fate getting caught in this on a mere coincidence... Or the knight were specifically after them, for whatever reason. Either way, the situation was very very bad.

"Chrono!" She called. "I want you to go down and assess the situation within the barrier. Assist Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan if necessary." The black-haired enforcer-in-training nodded.

"Alright." He said, acknowledging the order, as he turned on his heals and headed to the transportation chamber. However, before he could make more than a couple of steps, both Yuuno and Arf spoke up.

"We're coming too!" They both said, making it quite clear with their tone that they'll go even if Lindy told them not to. The teal-haired captain sighed, but decided to give them her permission... Once those three were off the "Arthra"'s bridge, she turned her attention to the young Potter.

"Harry, I want you to get ready for deployment." Captain Harlaown said. "I really hope that the five of them will be able to sort this situation out as they are, but..." She didn't say it out aloud, but there indeed was a chance that the things would get even worse than they were right now.

"Understood." Harry replied, also hoping the Fates will be gracious towards them and the today's problem would not escalate beyond what the usual combat mages of "Arthra" could handle.

* * *

For everyone aboard of "Arthra" the next dozen or so minutes certainly felt like an eternity as they had absolutely no idea what was happening in the Uminari city, thanks to that communication jamming barrier. Then, without any warnings, this barrier disappeared. And, unfortunately, it was not because Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san were victorious – the observation sphere deployed by "Arthra" was showing that those two were trapped within some sort of a magical cage.

The Book's guardian knights too were nowhere to be seen. Instead, standing atop of the hospital's roof there was a young woman in a black mini-dress with silver hair and three pairs of black feathery wings behind her back. The sensors aboard of "Arthra" could provide only a rough estimation of her magical power, but... it was so far off the scale that it was not even funny. It was also the perfect clue to this mysterious woman's identity: with that much raw power she could only be the Book of Darkness itself!

Understandably, the reactions of everyone aboard of "Arthra" could be surmised summarized as 'oh crap'! After all, they were just shown that all the hard work they did to prevent this planet-killer Lost Logia from reaching its completion and awakening was for naught. And now the said Lost Logia was about to begin wreaking destruction upon this world!

There was a second long pause, before the avatar of the Book of Darkness released a powerful wave of raw mana that shattered whatever magics that kept Nanoha and Fate trapped in that floating cage of theirs. The observation sphere relaying the image to "Arthra" was annihilated just a split second later... At least the rest of the warship's sensors weren't destroyed by that mighty burst of magical power. Which was why they were now going crazy as they were registering a spatial attack so powerful that it could probably blow the entire city up!

**~/ *** \~**

Standing on a roof of a random building a few miles away from the Uminari city hospital, there was a pair of identical blue-haired men in white-and-blue suits with white masks concealing their faces.

"I wonder, how long those two will last." One of those two men mused as a huge black sphere of destruction created by the Book of Darkness swallowed up a sizable part of the city. "I certainly hope, at least until _it_ starts going completely out of control." His twin merely nodded in response.

Suddenly, the masked pair noticed a faint icy-blue glow coming from under their feet. They didn't get a chance to even react properly, though, as a split second later numerous magical bindings burst into existence around them, tying them securely.

"**Struggle bind!**" Chrono Harlaown announced as floated into the pair's view. "Now, shall we see who you truly are?" The black-haired enforcer-in-training asked rhetorically as his spell began forcefully undoing any and all transformation magics that his two captives may have had on them. The pair's forms began wavering, and after a couple of seconds the 'men' were gone. In their places there now was a pair of twin cat-girls. "Aria? Lotte? What's going on?" Chrono asked – almost shouted – in surprise as he recognized them. Shaking his head, he decided that instead of interrogating them directly, he should get the answers directly from their master. Thus, he rang on Gil Graham up.

"Yes?" The aged man asked, his voice barely betraying the fact that he clearing wasn't expecting any calls at this time. Even if for whatever reason he was still in his office at the headquarters.

"Care to explain this, counter admiral?" The enforcer-in-training asked coldly as he turned around to show Graham his captured and unmasked familiars as well as the hard evidence of their ...rather questionable deeds.

"Don't you dare to speak to father like that!" Lotte spoke up agitatedly as she tried to struggle against the magical bindings that were tying her and her twin up. "He has nothing to do with this! This was all..." She didn't get to finish whatever she was going to say as her master interrupted her.

"That's quite enough, Lotte." Gil Graham said calmly. Or as calmly as someone who has just seen the years worth of their plans crumble to dust right in front of their eyes could. Turning his attention back to the dark-haired enforcer-in-training he continued: "You already know everything, right, Chrono?" He received an unsure nod in response. "I will be making no excuses, beyond saying that I was doing what I thought was the best way to end the cursed Book of Darkness forever."

"And this plan of yours requires the awakening of the Book?" Chrono asked in a little disbelief.

"Yes." Counter admiral Graham replied. "Normally, attacking either the Book or its master would cause it to disappear and regenerate elsewhere. However, when it takes over its master right after its awakening, and before its Defense program goes berserk, that regeneration won't be triggered. If the Book is frozen and sealed in the dimensional void during that time, it would not be returning."

"You already know that your plan is illegal." Chrono responded after a long pause. "But there is another problem with it. With the Book of Darkness still technically existing, there will always be those who will seek its release from its frozen prison. And, sooner or later, someone will succeed in that. When that happens, the Book will be unleashed upon the worlds once again."

"You are probably right." Gil Graham admitted finally. "However,.." He continued. "Now that is has been awakened, the Book of Darkness must be stopped, before it destroys this world. Whether you will go with my plan, or some other one, I still want you to take the staff of freezing, Durandal. It should be on Aria." The said cat-girl was about to protest, but a single glare from her master told her to be silent and let the enforcer-in-training take the device. "Also, Chrono, does anyone besides you know that the masked men were Aria and Lotte?"

"No." The dark-haired teen replied, which earned him a nod from counter admiral.

"Good." He said. "Then I want you to consider allowing them to assist you in the battle against the Book of Darkness. It is powerful beyond your imagination and having even a little extra help would not be a bad thing..." There was a moment-long pause, before Gil Graham continued. "And if you find yourself unable to just trust them after what I've had them do, have the safeguards to ensure that they will follow your orders placed on them." This time, the twins knew better to even question their master, though they certainly didn't look happy with this.

"I shall think about that." Chrono replied.

"Good." Counter admiral Graham said next. "As for me... I know that what I've done is illegal, and I know that I've lost. I wont' be running away, though. I will be in my office, so feel free to send your men to arrest me. My only request is that you won't let the Book of Darkness cause any unnecessary causalities." The enforcer-in-training nodded.

"I shall see to that, counter admiral." Upon hearing those words, Gil Graham saluted to him. Which was the last thing Chrono saw since the communication channel went dead immediately afterwards, broken by a powerful magical barrier that the Book of Darkness had erected over the city.

**~/ *** \~**

"Book of Darkness is deploying a barrier over the city." Amy, who was still monitoring the situation in the Uminari city, announced. There was a brief moment of static noise on the screens before the images returned. Another few seconds later, the analysis of this barrier was complete.

Apparently, this barrier was rather complex piece of magic, meant to entrap people within the area, while making it impossible for them to use any magical means of communication. And as a side effect, this barrier also partially phased everyone with awakened Linker Cores out of this plane reality, making the magical battles completely unnoticeable to those who had no magic in them. Though... Something wasn't quite adding up there.

"We are detecting four unexpected signatures within the barrier." Amy reported. "Two of those are about double-A rank in power and are right next to Chrono's location. As for the other pair... They are so weak that we can barely detect them, and they are all by themselves with our closest mage being over two miles away from them."

"Those two are likely civilians." Captain Harlaown mused aloud. It was entirely possible that those two remained noticed until now, thanks to the 'noise' created by normal non-magical humans. "Can you get me an image of them, Amy-chan?" Lindy asked then.

"Alright." The brunette replied as she ordered the deployment of another observation sphere over the city. It was a few seconds before the said sphere was up and running; and when it finally began relaying an image, it showed a pair of girls of about Nanoha's and Fate's age – one with reddish-blonde and one with purple hair – looking completely lost in the ghost-city within the barrier.

"Are those... Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan?" The teal-haired captain asked, surprised to see those two getting caught in this whole Book of Darkness mess like that.

"Seems so." Amy confirmed.

"Harry." Lindy said. "Here's finally the job for you. I want you to protect these two girls until the barrier is broken or the battle is over." Arf and Yuuno might be closer to that pair, but they already had a much more important task of supporting Nanoha and Fate in their battle against the Book's avatar.

"Of course." The young Potter replied. This sounded like a low risk job that even an inexperienced mage like him could do with little to no problems. Of course, there always was a chance of something going terribly wrong, but... "I'm departing." He announced as he left the bridge and headed to the "Arthra"'s transportation chamber.

* * *

A strange oppressive feeling flowing through the yellow-tinted world within the barrier created by the Book of Darkness was what had greeted Harry as he teleported from "Arthra" to the Uminari city. Taking a second to get used to the change of scenery, the green-eyed teen asked his device to project a holographic display with the map of the city and the last known location of those two girls – Arisa and Suzuka? – he was supposed to be protecting.

Well, it looked like he had landed about two blocks away from that location. Which was probably the best he could have hoped for: any closer and there was a chance of scaring the girls into doing something monumentally stupid with his sudden appearance; any farther, and it might take him too much time to reach them... Closing the map, Harry headed in the direction the girls were supposed to be in, while pushing his mana into his legs to increase his speed. Sure, flying would be even faster, but, once again, if he brought his glowing magical wings out, there was a good chance of him scaring those girls unnecessarily.

Quite surprisingly for the young Potter, Arisa and Suzuka turned out to be quite wing-footed for a pair of scared ten years old girls... Or maybe they were so quick _because_ they were scared? Anyhow, it took him some work to finally catch up with them. And it was a good thing that he reached them when he did as out of the corner of his eyes, he could see the Book of Darkness charging up some very powerful spell that looked like a huge pink ball of mana with 'stars' falling onto it...

"Look, Arisa-chan, there is someone!" Harry heard the purple-haired girl say to her friends as she finally noticed him. "Hey, mister, what's going on?" She asked the, addressing to him as he walked closer to them. Apparently, it was a wise decision of his not to manifest his barrier jacket: he definitely looked more authoritative in the Ground Forces uniform.

"Are you two alright?" He asked, ignoring their question for the moment, while also having his device do a basic scan of them to ensure that they were physically fine. The girls then nodded, confirming that they were indeed alright. "Good. I'm Administrative Bureau Ground Forces' private second class Harry Potter." He introduced himself "Now, let's get somewhere safer, before I can try explaining you the situation." He said, while glancing upwards where the Book of Darkness already finished charging her spell up and was now ready to fire it... And the three of them were within the targeted area.

"O-okay..." The blonde girl – Arisa – said hesitantly, all of the lessons about not going anywhere with strangers coming to the front of her mind. Yet, not following him wherever he was going to take them didn't look like a safer option, especially in this yellow-tinted and devoid of humans world.

"Then please stay close to me no matter what happens, until I tell you otherwise." Harry said, while silently using his device to make the calculations necessary for teleporting them to a different part of the city, the one that won't be blown up by whatever spell the Book of Darkness was about unleash. After all, while the barrier around the city prevented those inside of it from leaving, it couldn't stop one from teleporting within its boundary.

The green-eyed teen then began weaving his spell, causing a glowing eight-pointed star that was his magic circle appear underneath his feet. Understandably, this caused a mild freak-out in the two girls, but, remembering his words, they remained standing close to him...

That was when a familiar pair of girl mages flew into their view from behind a street corner.

"Nanoha-chan? Fate-chan?" Both Arisa and Suzuka asked in surprise, clearly having never seen their friends perform any magic before. "What's going on here?" Harry ignored those questions in favor of completing his spell, while Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san were too busy fleeing from the avatar of the Book of Darkness to stop and give some explanations... Not to mention that they themselves were clearly surprised to see Arisa and Suzuka there.

"**Dimensional transfer!**" The young Potter intoned as he completed and activated his spell.

* * *

As the whitish light that had momentary filled their vision faded, the Arisa and Suzuka saw that they were now standing on a levee overseeing the bay the Uminari city was founded next to. And the city itself – or, at least its downtown – now was some distance away. Which, they would quickly agree, was a good thing as a few seconds later a thick pink energy beam tore through the downtown, immediately followed by an energy sphere of the same color swallowing a good quarter of the city...

The girls just stared dumbly at the sight of a magical equivalent of a nuclear warhead going off within their home city. Harry himself was also deeply shocked by the amount of power the Book of Darkness had put into that attack, but at least he was aware of what was going on around him enough to throw a shield to protect all three of them from the oncoming shock wave: even here, a good few miles away from the ground zero, it still retained enough power to throw them off their feet.

As the magical explosion finally began to die down some ten seconds later, the green-eyed teen noticed something quite interesting: the city was still very much intact after whatever ridiculously-overpowered bombardment spell the Book of Darkness had used. And that was quite strange as that spell, had it been used in the 'indiscriminate damage' mode, definitely had enough power to completely atomize even the objects that had been partially displaced by the barrier.

Well,... Most likely this spell just didn't have such mode, Harry reasoned. After all, why would a planet-killer Lost Logia, whose only purpose was the destruction of whichever world it had been awakened on, hold back and use 'magic damage only' attacks? But... if it indeed was such a spell, why would the Book of Darkness use it at all? Surely, somewhere in the vast library of magical knowledge it had absorbed from its victims there was an equally-powerful piece of magic that could damage physical objects as well...

He was brought out of his musings by a very impatient ten years old girl.

"Aright, mister, explain what is going on!" The blonde, Arisa, demanded with her arms akimbo. Harry sighed: he knew that he definitely was far from the best person to give someone an introduction to magic. Yet, with how pushy his two charges were, there was no way he could postpone this any further. And with the barrier they all were still trapped in, he couldn't even ask captain Harlaown for some help.

"Well..." The young Potter began awkwardly. "Given the tonight's events, I guess, you won't have much trouble believing that magic does, in fact, exist."

"Let's pretend we believe you." Arisa said, her tone practically dripping with distrust. Apparently, even even seeing the magical battle going on in the city right now was not enough to completely shatter her disbelief towards the existence of supernatural. "Are you a wizard then? Like the one from fairy tails? And what about Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan?"

"A mage, actually." Harry corrected her. "'And Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san are mages as well. However, our magic is quite different from what you might have read about in the fantasy books. It is more of a science than anything else, follows rather strict rules and generally deals with energy-type conversions while still conforming to the second law of thermodynamics."

"O-o-o-okay..." The blond girl said. "So, what's the deal with that light show?" She asked, while nodding towards the still ongoing battle within the city.

"And how come there is no one around? Where did everyone disappear to?" Her purple-haired friend, Suzuka, added a question of her own.

"Well..." Harry began. "You see... There was an ancient, very powerful and very dangerous artifact within the city. We, as in an organization of mages, were doing our best to prevent it from awakening. But, due to an outside interference, we've failed in that. So, right now, we are doing our best to contain and stop this rampaging artifact before it does too much damage." He explained. "As for where all the people within the city have disappeared to? They are technically still there, just phased onto a different layer of reality by the magical barrier around the city, so that neither we can see them, nor they can see us. When the barrier goes down, the layers of reality will merge back together and the people will reappear." There was a long pause, before Arisa asked a very logical question:

"If you and Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan are mages and are here, does it mean that we are mages too?"

"You certainly have active Linker Cores – that is a metaphysical organ that generates and stores mana, thus enabling one to cast spells – as otherwise you wouldn't be here right now. Yet... According to our scans, neither of you possess any significant amounts of magical power."

"Oh drat!" Arisa swore. Learning that you have something as incredible as magic yet don't have enough power to use it in any way must have been hard on her. Her more level-headed friend, Suzuka, also appeared to be quite upset about this, even if she didn't voice it out.

Looking away from the two girls he was protecting for a moment, the young Potter saw that in the last few minutes the battle against the Book of Darkness had moved away from the Uminari city downtown and into the nearby bay. Thankfully, it was still a fair distance away from their current location...

And then, there was a big explosion of pink energy in skies. Quite surprisingly, though, this explosion was followed by the magical barrier around the city collapsing. Did someone actually manage to land a hit on the berserk planet-killer Lost Logia? Whatever had happened out there, the battle seemed to stop after that explosion. Even if the Book of Darkness was still active and as powerful as ever, according to the information his device was feeding to him.

At this point, two new fighters entered the stage, though Harry himself couldn't see them at such a distance, even if his eyesight had been repaired during his time on the Mid-Childa. What he could see, though, were the multiple green and orange binding spells that were used to root the Book of Darkness to a single spot. And there also was as a powerful bombardment spell – once again, pink in color – being charged up.

Then, the was fired, creating another, even bigger, explosion of pink light. Which also coincided with a beam of yellow shooting upwards to the skies. Another moment later, something uncomfortably-close to an earthquake began, while a cocoon of purplish-black energies appeared where the Book of Darkness used to be. Though... Before it could finish forming, a ball of white light broke away from it, carrying a noticeable portion of the berserk planet-killer's powers with it.

This ball of light then exploded into a pillar reaching towards the skies as four powerful presences entered the battlefield, manifesting themselves around it. After that, the light show finally died down, leaving only the cocoon of darkness stranded in the middle of the bay. Plus, since the battle wasn't resuming, it was a reasonable assumption that whoever those new warriors were, they were allies. At least for now...

"It seems that might end up victorious after all..." Harry commented.

"What do you mean?" Arisa asked immediately.

"When I said that the artifact we are trying to stop is powerful, I might have lied a little bit." The dark-haired teen confessed. Ignoring the girls' questions of what did he mean by that, he continued. "It is much more than just powerful. This artifact is... It is classified as a planet-killer, and for a reason. It has destroyed entire worlds before." He said finally. "But don't worry: this time, we will defeat it!" He gave his countenance, even if he didn't entirely believe in that himself. Still, it did its job as it calmed the girls down somewhat... Suddenly, his device informed him about an incoming call. Sending it a mental command to accept, Harry had a holographic display, relaying an image from the "Arthra"'s bridge pop up in front of him. "Captain Harlaown!" He greeted with a salute.

"Lindy-san?" The two girls next to him asked in great surprise. Apparently, they knew the teal-haired captain from somewhere, but had no idea just who she really was.

"Oh, Arisa-chan, Suzuka-chan, are you two alright?" Not really waiting for them to give an answer, Lindy continued, this time addressing to the young Potter instead: "Good job protecting them, Harry."

"Thank you, ma'am!" He replied.

"Now then... I have a request. Not an order, just a request." This certainly sounded interesting. So, the green-eyed teen silently told his captain that he was listening. "Even if we've gained some unexpected allies for our final stand against the berserk Defense Program of the Tome of the Night Sky, I fear that we might still need more power to win tonight." Here, captain Harlaown made a small pause. "Which is why, Harry, I'm asking you to give them a hand. Your unique magic might just be exactly what we need to finally stop the curse of the Book of Darkness forever." Closing his eyes, the young Potter thought about it. Finally, after a few seconds, he made his decision:

"I shall do that, captain." He said.

"Thank you, Harry." Lindy replied, while giving him a small salute. "I shall inform everyone about your decision." The black-haired teen gave her a nod, before ending the call.

"Now, Arisa-san, Suzuka-san." He said to the two girls next to him. "I have to go now." Taking a step forward, he intoned: "**Phoenix claw, set up!**" As his device took its active form of a silvery clawed gauntlet, his brown Ground Forces' uniform disappeared, replaced by his barrier jacket. Another second later, the young Potter was surrounded by a thin cloak of magical energy, while two pairs of bird-like wings appeared behind his back. "Stay safe and don't worry: we will definitely win tonight!" And with those words he took off...

* * *

By the time Harry arrived there, the rest of the party was long assembled. And what a party it was... First and foremost, there were Nanoha Takamachi, whose device now looked like a golden spear with three pairs of pink wings on it; Fate Testarossa wielding what appeared to be a zweihander with its thick blade composed entirely of golden mana; and Chrono Harlaown with some very special and very powerful staff in his hands.

Supporting them, there were Yuuno Scrya; Testarossa-san's familiar Arf; and, finally, the twin familiars of counter admiral Graham, Liesearia and Lieselotte. Though, truth to be said, Harry had absolutely no idea what the two cat-girls were doing there or why they looked so unhappy about being there...

The final five members of the party were the four guardian knights of the Tome of the Night Sky – one of which was actually healing Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san – and their current mistress, one Hayate Yagami. Though, for whatever reason, the girl's hair was platinum-blonde instead of brown, and her eyes were too azure for that to be a natural color.

"Uhm..." The young Potter began. There was a pretty long pause then as he wasn't sure just what he should say next. In the end, he decided to go with the following question: "What's the plan for the battle?" Chrono the enforcer-in-training was the one to give Harry the answer:

"Once the berserk Defense Program breaks out of the stasis, we will need to destroy the four defensive barriers it guards itself with." The staff-wielding teen said. "Once that is done, our next task is stripping it down to its core by continuously delivering large amounts of damage upon it. Finally, when we have the core, it will be teleported into outer space and hit with Arc-en-Ciel. If everything goes well, that should be enough to stop the current incarnation of the corrupted Defense Program and give us enough time to undertake measures necessary to prevent its return."

"Understood." The young Potter relied with a nod. The rest of the party nodded as well, even if they all knew this plan already.

Suddenly, a new voice entered the conversation:

"_With the permission of my mistress, I shall be taking over until the end of the battle._" The four Guardian Knights seemed to recognize that voice and so did Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san. The rest of the party, though, were just as clueless about the identity of the speaker as Harry himself was...

Once this new speaker finished, Hayate's form was engulfed be the soothing white light. And when this light faded, in her place there stood a red-eyed silver-haired young woman that looked a lot like the avatar of the Book of Darkness, just without the red markings on her skin. Yet, despite looking quite similar, it was easy to tell that this woman was not like that monster: the aura she was projecting was of lingering sadness, remorse and happiness – not the emotions a mindless berserk could ever feel.

Finally, this silver-haired beauty spoke:

"Please, call me by the name mistress Hayate has bestowed upon me: Reinforce!"

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!

**Now**, here is a question to you, my readers: **what should happen to the Liese twins**? Do they both live through the battle intact? Does one of the die? Or both of them do? Or they survive but, say, lose limbs? Since no matter which option is gets written into the chapter, it will have little impact on the rest of the story, feel free to express your ideas on the matter. I might just listen to one of them.


	12. Clear Skies

The twelfth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**Impstar**, **SonicAnime2010**, I answered your review via PM.  
**Jose19**, please remember that mage's rank is not equal to their combat ability, and with Harry's magic being so good at ignoring magical defenses,.. An A-ranked spell of his has the same destructive potential as a conventional S-ranked one. At least when in comes to anti-personnel fight - Harry still lacks powerful area-of-effect spells.  
**Takeshi Yamato**, **Ranmaleopard**, **MWkillkenny84**, **voidzzz**, yes, Reinforce will survive in my story. I have some big plans for her, after all...  
**celf**, **Key to Chaos**, after some thinking, I've decided on what will happen to Hedwig. Harry will indeed research the familiar creation rituals, but... Let's say, Hedwig still won't become a proper familiar. But she wont stay just an owl forever either.  
**ultima-owner**, **Penny is wise**, **catsfissh**, **FateBurn**, **raynisia**, **dorfdel**, **Reader12345678910**, **serialkeller**, **karthik9**, **voidzzz**, **Shadowsmage**, **Reishin Amara**, **Opinr**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Megami-tan**, thanks for catching that mistake of mine - Fate is indeed AAA-ranked mage by the time A's events start. 

*** AN**: Chapter XII or the 'befriending' of NachtWal. I was not sure how to end this chapter, so I cut it short as the point where it felt least awkward. Unfortunately, this made the chapter into one big fight - second half of which is actually a lot like what had happened in canon. And based on the results of the small voting I had initiated in the previous chapter, the Liese Twins survive the fight intact.

Also, a fun fact: the first '**Heimdall**' used by Reinforce in this chapter delivers a hit with the total kinetic energy of about 30TJ - it's equivalent to the yield of a 7.5 kiloton nuke!

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

_**Special thanks**_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XII: Clear Skies**

The next minute dragged on and on forever as everyone waited for the berserk Defense Program to break out of its cocoon of darkness and reveal itself to the world. Then, after what certainly felt like an eternity, it finally began. One by one, pillars of darkness began rising around the cocoon. And once all nine of them had manifested, the cocoon rose into the air, while the pillars wrapped around it like ferrules. This was followed by the whole cocoon going completely pitch-black. And another second later, it exploded outwards with a mighty shock-wave, finally revealing the bizarre monster that the berserk Defense Program turned into.

It had an overall shape of a whale-sized bug with massive clawed legs covered in plates of spiked pseudo-metallic armor. The 'head' of this beast, however, was nothing more than a pair of massive jaws, surrounded by a mane of black fur and a crown of curved horns of different sizes and colors. Protruding upwards from where the neck joint was supposed to be, there was a naked humanoid-like torso with purplish-pink skin covered with many deep-red markings... The back of this beast was covered in sharp and deadly spikes, each as long as a ten feet, with clusters of thin tentacles and three pairs of black feathery wings sticking out of the carapace at seemingly random points... And to complete the image, it was surrounded by thick dark-purple mist of raw mana with four semi-transparent barriers forming a multi-layered dome around it.

All in all, the berserk Defense Program looked like a monster straight out of some psychic-ward patient's nightmare. And the odd resounding wails it made certainly fit with its alien looks. However, before anyone could even ask what the hell this thing was, it began preparing its attack. And it wasn't just a single spell either. No, it was charging up no less than a dozen overpowered to the extremes bombardment spells simultaneously, while also summoning hundreds upon hundreds of lesser magical bullets at the same time.

"Watch out!" Someone – Harry wasn't sure who – shouted, breaking the rest of the party out of the stupor... Unfortunately for the green-eyed teen, his only chance to survive this storm of projectiles was dodging it entirely. Which he did by dropping towards the waters of the bay as fast as the gravity could carry him and returning to just floating in the air only when the multi-colored barrage of magical missiles flew over his head.

"_You can't defend yourself against those?_" Chrono, who, apparently, paid enough attention to everything going on around him to notice Harry's maneuver, asked him telepathically.

"_Yes, my shield works well only against physical attacks. The rest will go right through it._" The young Potter responded, while rising back to the same altitude the rest of the party was on. The enforcer-in-training nodded, before issuing his order:

"_Aria, guard him._" The longer-haired cat-girl merely nodded, before practically teleporting in front of Harry, while raising the strongest shield she could produce. Thankfully, this shield was good enough to withstand the next barrage of magical bullets the berserk Defense Program had sent their way.

"Dammit, just how powerful is this thing?" Arf complained loud enough for everyone to hear her as the said mass of corruption began charging up another round of bombardment spells.

"_When my master and I separated ourselves from it, I was able to take only about thirteen percents of its power for myself._" Reinforce responded telepathically.

"_So,.. It is seven times more powerful than you?_" Chrono asked with some disbelief in his 'voice'. After all, Reinforce already possessed several times more raw power than the rest of the party combined.

"_Yes. However, it lacks intelligence, especially with the corruption that now controls its actions, so it is unable to utilize that power effectively._" The silver-haired avatar of the Lost Logia replied. "_However, even without intelligence, it is not to be underestimated. By shooting at everything it has within its attack range all the time, it does prevent us from counterattacking quite well._"

"_My shooting spells don't require a direct line of sight._" Harry supplied. "_So if Aria-san can keep her shield up, I can try probing the barriers surrounding the Defense Program._" The cat-girl floating in front of him nodded as she reinforced her shielding spell as much as she could. "**Solar Flare!**" The young Potter intoned as half a dozen football-sized magical projectiles began manifesting around him... Thankfully, the berserk Defense Program didn't consider him to be enough of a threat to fire any spells that Aria's shield couldn't tank his way until the agonizingly long second it took his spell to charge up was over. "Shoot!"

Six whitish meteors immediately darted towards the corrupted monstrosity, each following a separate and random trajectory to minimize the chance of being shot down or otherwise destroyed before they could even reach the outer barrier. And indeed, they all made it there. And managed to pierce not just the outer barrier, but two more underneath it, before they were finally stopped by the fourth layer.

"_That wasn't half bad._" Reinforce commented. Each of those barriers were powerful enough to easily stop Nanoha's best Starlight Breaker. "_Anything you can tell us about those barriers?_" After all, any little bit of information that could help them getting past those defenses might end up as what would eventually grant them the victory tonight.

"_The outer two layers are anti-magic barriers._" Harry replied. "_The third layer is meant to protect it first and foremost against physical attacks, and the inner-most layer is another anti-magic barrier. The mana mist around the Defense Program will also act as another layer of anti-magic defense. And, unlike the four barriers, it can't be dispelled as long as the program itself exists._" What went unsaid was the fact that thick hide of that monstrous beast likely could tank quite some damage too...

"Alright!" The silver-haired beauty replied. Verbally. "Signum, Vita, guard me!" The said two knights immediately appeared in front of their mistress, ready to protect her as she went about preparing some powerful attack... Once Reinforce was sure that she could drop her own defenses, she began chanting: "Tridents of Poseidon, gather from the sea! Sighs of the silver snow, come from yonder! Mauls of silver, form spear of frost that pierce your enemies!.." And as she chanted, the red-eyed beauty kept raising her hands towards the skies. Following her movements, the sea water was drawn upwards, where it froze into a dozen of stake-shaped icebergs, each the size of a giant skyscraper.

The Defense Program, of course, tried to destroy those icebergs, but it couldn't do anything as any damage it inflicted upon those masses of ice was repaired within a heartbeat.

"_W-W-What are you doing?_" Chrono asked fearfully. If that much of ice was suddenly dropped back into the bay, it could very well create a tidal wave capable of seriously damaging the Uminari city.

"_Don't worry._" Was all the response he got as Reinforce continued preparing her attack. "**Heimdall: Phalanx Shift!**" She finally announced a couple of seconds later as all twelve icebergs were thrown towards the Defense Program at the speed of a hundred meters per second... What had happened next was impossible to describe with words as the colossal forces clashed against each other. In the end, with a deafening sound of broken glass the outer barrier was destroyed, while all of the icebergs turned into fine ice dust.

The party, however, had no time to gawk at the display of the power in front of them: the berserk beast was far from happy with their little success at breaching the outer layer of its defenses moment ago and was now preparing a massive counterattack. So massive that the hundreds of spells it was charging up produced a nearly blinding light all by themselves.

That was probably the reason why both Aria and Harry were a little too slow to react when a thick golden beam of a bombardment spell headed their way... And while the girl in front of him was still able to avoid it completely, the young Potter himself wasn't as lucky and got his left 'wing' clipped. Which, due to the mechanics of his flight spell, sent him spiraling downwards. And without Aria's shield to protect him from lesser incoming attacks, even those two seconds it took him to re-manifest his wings were enough for a magical bullet to burn away a chunk his flesh at his right hip.

The searing pain from that wound was enough to completely break his concentration and Harry was once again falling towards the cold waters of the Uminari bay. Only to never reach them as a dark-green portal manifested itself in his path. Falling through this portal brought him more or less into the hands of the blonde knight... Shamal was her name?

"Let me heal you." She said, while already running a diagnostic spell to know the extent of his injury. "You were quite lucky." She concluded. "Even if it must hurt like hell, the wound is mostly superficial. I should be able to patch you up in a couple of minutes. It will still leave a scar and you are likely to be walking stiff for a couple of days, but..." Harry nodded.

"Thank you." He said as he felt the soothing magic of the blond knight already easing his pain.

"Watch out!" Someone shouted suddenly, alerting the two of them about a whitish bombardment spell heading their way. And given how medical spells couldn't be interrupted mid-cast without something bad happening to the patient, the two of them just couldn't evade this one...

The white beam collided with the shields hastily conjured by the Liese twins, tearing through those like they were but a wet paper. The shield created by the wolf-like guardian knight didn't fare much better, and neither did the crystal-like shell the not-familiar had surrounded himself with as he placed himself in the beam's path – everything on the right side of his body was essentially vaporized...

"Zafira!" The rest of the knights, as well as Fate and Nanoha cried out. Reinforce too gritted her teeth, though, she didn't look as scared for the wolf-like man as the others.

Meanwhile, the white beam of destruction kept advancing. It broke through Arf's shield and then ran into the one created by Yuuno. But unlike the others, the blond boy didn't place his shield perpendicular to the bombardment spell's path, thus redirecting it away from Harry and Shamal.

"**Under the administrative powers of the Tome of the Night Sky... Guardian knights, unit Zafira: reload!**" The silver-haired avatar of the Tome commanded in deep concentration. A moment later bright white light formed around the wounded knight. And when this light faded away several seconds later, the wolf-like man was completely healed.

"I thank you, my mistress." He said with a bow, while deploying a shield to protect himself from incoming barrage of the magical bullets. Reinforce just nodded in response, while telling him something telepathically that no one else could hear. Judging by the slight blush appearing on the large man's face, he was likely chastised for that rushed and quite stupid stunt of his...

No sooner had they dealt with their current problem, a new one presented itself: the berserk Defense Program, apparently, could restore its defensive barriers. And taking into account just how hard breaking one of those had been... It was a huge problem. Doubly so since it took that monster only a minute to do that.

"Grrr..." Arf growled, expressing what everyone felt about this situation quite well.

"_Alright... What do we do now?_" The enforcer-in-training asked, while looking at Reinforce. "_Will you be able to break those barriers again?_" The silver-haired beauty kind-of nodded.

"_I have enough mana to pull six or seven more attacks on the scale of Heimdall. After that, though..._" She made short pause, before adding: "_And as powerful as it is, it is far from the best spell in these new conditions: the full casting cycle for it is forty seconds long._" In other words, they won't be able to get past the third layer of barriers that way. Ever.

"_If we can take down the two outer anti-magic barriers, my shooters should be able to reach the main body of the Defense Program._" Harry said. "_Also, can't we use other cannons inboard of "Arthra"?_"

"_That's actually an idea. However, if she gets too close, she will be destroyed. Her shields can take only so much punishment, and the Defense Program will certainly mark a warship as the highest-priority target._" Chrono replied. Reinforce was the one to ease everyone's minds, however:

"_If your warship remains at the altitude of thirty or more miles, it should be relatively safe. The spell with the greatest effective range the Defense Program has access to can reliably strike targets only at twenty miles._" Nodding, the enforcer-in-training initiated a call so that he could explain the "Arthra"'s crew the new plan... This conversation lasted from maybe a minute. "_Alright. "Arthra" will be in position in a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, we should back away from the Defense Program down there a little bit as even the standard cannons of the Bureau warships have large impact zones._" Receiving a round of acknowledgments from the rest of the party, he continued: "_Now then,.. What should we be doing next?_" While he was technically the highest-ranked officer on the field, Chrono felt that it was Reinforce, who should be giving the orders right now: not only she was by far the strongest of them all, she was also the most knowledgeable about their opponent.

"_Hm... Let me see..._" The said silver-haired beauty replied thoughtfully. "_Our task is to destroy the outer barrier layers as quickly as possible..._" There was a short pause, during which she finally formed the plan: "_Shamal, I want you to take the tome and prepare the Hakai no Ikazuchi, use it once the warship saturates the outer barrier enough._" The blond knight nodded as she summoned the Tome of the Night Sky from her mistress' hands and into her own. "_Zafira, you will be guarding her._"

"_Understood, mistress._" The wolf-like man replied as he swiftly moved to the knight of the lake's side. Meanwhile, Reinforce continued:

"_Nanoha, I want you to charge the most powerful Starlight Breaker you can control. And try hitting the same spot Shamal does._" The brown-haired girl nodded as she got into stance. Fate and Chrono moved in front of her to shield her from whatever the corrupted Defense Program might try throwing her way. "_I will prepare another Heimdall meanwhile._" The silver-haired woman continued. "_Signum and Vita, you will be guarding me._" Receiving the nods of acknowledgment from those two knights of hers, Reinforce turned her attention to Harry: "_If everything works well, we should give you about fifty five seconds to do as much damage to the Defense Program as possible._"

"_Understood. I won't let you down._" The young Potter replied. Nodding, the red-eyed beauty turned her eyes upwards, where "Arthra" had just teleported into the Earth's atmosphere and now was getting ready to rain destruction upon the unholy beast that the berserk Defense Program was.

"_Alright, everyone, get ready!_" Reinforce called.

**~/ *** \~**

The battle in middle of the Uminari bay dragged on and on for the last fifteen or so minutes and yet it didn't look like the heroes, despite some truly massive attacks being thrown around like candies on Halloween, had made any progress in putting that unnatural beast down. Thus, rather understandably, uneasiness was creeping upon Arisa and Suzuka, who watched that battle from a safe distance.

"M-Maybe we should r-run for the hills?" The purple-haired girl asked when that super-massive attack by the flying icebergs didn't work and the bizarre monster the heroes were fighting did a number on them instead. "Ouch!" She immediately cried out as her friend smacked her on the back of her head.

"They will win." Arisa stated in a tone that said that no objections will be accepted. "Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan will win!" The blonde repeated. "_He_ said so."

"B-But..." Suzuka tired to protest, only to shut up as she saw the party move some distance away from the monstrosity they had been fighting, before initiating the preparations for the next round of their next attack. "Yes." She finally agreed as white meteors began raining upon the beast from something unseen floating high in the skies. "They are going to win."

**~/ *** \~**

"_Everyone, get ready!_" Reinforce ordered as the white meteor-like projectiles began raining upon the berserk Defense Program from the skies. And not even waiting for the round of acknowledgments from the rest of the party, she began preparing her Heimdall spell. Since the beast already knew just how powerful a hit those floating icebergs could deliver, it, of course, concentrated all of its considerable power on destroying them. Thankfully, the limitless supply of water meant that Reinforce could regenerate those icebergs for as long as she mana – which she still had quite a lot... Finally, after what felt like an eternity, even if it was less than a minute in reality, her Heimdall reached its 'critical mass'. And with that, it was the time to enact their plan! "_Go!_" The silver-haired beauty ordered.

"**Hakai no Ikazuchi!**" Shamal intoned, using the Tome of the Night Sky to cast the spell that was normally outside of her abilities. A moment later, an orb of purple light appeared in the stormy skies above the berserk Defense Program. "Shoot!" The blond knight commanded as a think bolt of purple lightning descended towards the unholy beast like the fury of Heavens...

"**Starlight Breaker!**" Nanoha called at the same time, turning the forty-something yards big ball of mana she had collected into the biggest and most powerful beam of destruction she had ever created. And since the Defense Program's outer barrier was already saturated by the "Arthra"'s cannon fire, the two overpowered spells hitting more or less the same spot somehow managed to destroy it completely. Which was the cue for Reinforce to launch her own attack:

"**Heimdall: Phalanx Shift!**" The next second half a million tons of ice were slammed into the second barrier at one third of the speed of sound. It was hard to hear the sound of the barrier shattering in the thunderous boom of all that ice being crushed into fine dust, but it was still there. It was also the signal for Harry to start his own bombardment of the Defense Program...

"**Solar Flare!**" The young Potter called out, sending his white meteor-like projectiles towards the berserk beast in front of him by dozens. Of course, the remaining two barriers and the mist of raw mana that still surrounded his target weakened those originally-highly-destructive spells considerably. And while those weakened projectiles couldn't do much individually, the sheer number of them began tearing the humanoid torso on top of the Defense Program's monstrous body apart, piece by piece. Its deafening wail of pain was a proof of that...

However, even if Harry was now doing some real damage to the Defense Program, he wasn't doing it fast enough to actually manage something within the window of opportunity the earlier massive attack had provided him with. Not to mention that the ridiculous healing factor that thing possessed would heal any and all wounds it might sustain within seconds, should the assault on it cease even for a few moments... And the others in the party could see that too.

"_Alright!_" Reinforce called. "_Keep attacking, everyone! Let's try taking down the remaining barriers!_" Her command was followed by the round of acknowledgments. Then she began chanting: "Come forth, the wind of snow, and become the fletching which falls from the heavens. **Hræsvelgr**!" Once a big Belkan triangle appeared in front of her, she began firing thick white beams of magic from it. And these beams, once they came in contact with barriers around the Defense Program, blew up into great explosions of frost. A few seconds later, Nanoha fired her Starlight Breaker. And together with the bombardment provided by "Arthra"'s cannons, these attacks managed to shatter the third barrier.

"**Hakai no Ikazuchi!**" Shamal called out again while Fate unleashed a bombardment spell of her own that looked like thick golden beam surrounded by purple lightnings. Alas, this last barrier turned out to be tough enough to withstand that and the combined barrages from Reinforce and "Arthra"'s cannons for those few seconds it took the outer barrier layers to finish restoring itself.

But before anyone could start cursing at how their plan had once again failed, one of the last magical bullets that Harry had managed to get within the Defense Program's barriers succeeded in hitting one of that monster's vitals, causing it to let out another ear-piercing wail of pain as its magical defenses finally collapsed.

"Finally!" Arf exclaimed, expressing everyone's relief and happiness at finally bringing the defenses of that cursed monster down... With this, their victory tonight no longer appeared to be something unachievable: just a little bit more, and they will finally be able to put this berserk down!

"_Alright, everyone!_" Reinforce called, reminding the party that the battle was still far from over. "_We now need to keep the Defense Program restrained and under constant attacks to keep its regeneration from repairing the damage we've already caused and form bringing the barriers back online._" She said. And as everyone nodded in agreement with her proposed course of action, Chrono was actually the only one to ask a question:

"_Do we still need "Arthra" there for support?_" He inquired.

"_No. We should be fine by ourselves now... _**Mistilteinn!**" The silver-haired beauty replied, before firing seven spears of light towards the rapidly-recovering beast, making the parts of it struck by her spell turn into very real stone.

"_Alright then._" The enforcer-in-training replied. "_I shall tell them that they can return to the orbit now and start the preparations for the Arc-en-Ciel fire._" After all, the said cannon took quite some time to charge up, and it needed to be at ready for the last part of their plan to forever stop the berserk Defense Program to work. Receiving a nod from Reinforce, he then opened a communication channel to "Arthra"'s bridge so that he could pass this information to them. But, of course, before that, Chrono fired a powerful freezing spell of his own at the Defense Program, who was breaking free off its petrification already – that damn mana mist was canceling even S-ranked spells within seconds!

And he was also very glad that the Liese twins had followed the orders he had given them before the battle began so far and didn't display any of the abilities they showcased as the masked men. Losing the trust of the four knights and their mistress right there in the middle of a battle was the very last thing he and everyone in know about their involvement in the events of the past month wanted...

* * *

The next few minutes were spent in a rather routine way: Reinforce and Chrono kept throwing powerful freezing and petrification spells at the Defense Program while the rest of the part – sans Aria and Lotte who kept shielding everyone from the rare counterattack the berserk monstrosity did manage; and Shamal, who had been searching for its core – were doing their best to inflict as much injury upon it as they could... Which was far from easy as the cursed mist or raw mana greatly reduced the power of any spell that entered it, and the Defense Program itself had an incredible healing factor, which seemed to only get stronger, the more damaged that thing took.

"_I... I found the core!_" Shamal called as large ball of darkness could be seen through one of the four portals she had been using as the tool in her search. "_However, I don't think I can pull it out just yet._" The blond knight added after a few seconds.

"_Understood._" Reinforce replied. "_Everyone, hear that? Just a little bit more, and the day is saved!_"

"_Arf and I shall switch to getting the transportation matrix ready._" Yuuno, who until now had been using his chains as magical whips to tear the monstrous body of the Defense Program apart, said. Next to him the orange-haired wolf-girl nodded as the two of them began working on the forced teleportation spell meant to send the dark core of berserk into outer space and right into the "Arthra"'s Arc-en-Ciel...

"Let's do it, Fate-chan!" Nanoha called. Her blond partner nodded in response and the two of them floated to each others side for what apparently was a combination attack. Meanwhile, Reinforce began preparing a bombardment spell of her own:

"Resound, the horn of the end, **Ragnarök!**" Instantly, a Belkan triangle manifested itself in front of her, before three beams of white energy, surrounded by black lightnings, burst from it towards the Defense Program. And just a moment later, Nanoha and Fate fired their own spell, **Blast Calamity**, which was a powerful burst of raw mana, followed by what looked like a Divine Buster coupled with a Plasma Smasher.

These attacks finally reduced the already beaten up and wounded berserk monstrosity to just a shapeless bloody mess, which was desperately trying to regenerate the massive damage it had sustained... That, however, would never happen as Shamal was finally able to separate the corrupted black core of the Defense Program from its body.

"_I have it._" The blond knight announced. A moment later, she added hastily and with notes of fear in her voice: "_Hurry up, I can't hold it for long!_"

"**Long Distance Transfer!**" Yuuno called as he and Arf activated the transportation matrix. For a second or two nothing seemed to happen. Then, a multi-colored ball of light appeared in the waters of the bay among the floating remains of the Defense Program's body. Another moment later, this ball collapsed upon itself, just as a beam of white light shot upwards, towards the clear skies of the Christmas night.

A few seconds later, everyone was treated to the sight of truly massive explosion that was happening somewhere on the Earth's orbit. It looked like a bright flash that shone brighter than the Sun for a brief moment, with the concentric ring of light expanding outwards from it for hundreds of miles.

"I wonder, how they are going to cover it up?" Harry asked no one in particular. "I mean, this explosion could have been seen from anywhere this side of the planet..." Apparently, someone had heard his monologue, though.

"Oh, shut up, who cares about that!" The miniature knight of the hammer 'replied'. "We have won!"

"_The sensors aboard "Arthra" confirm the total destruction of the target._" Chrono reported, passing the information from "Arthra"'s bridge. His declaration was met by a moment of silence, followed by an explosion of cheers as everyone was just so happy that this battle, this nightmare was over.

"_Now,.._" Reinforce said suddenly, drawing the attention to herself. "_I believe, I've promised to return master Hayate to you once this is over. So, if you excuse me..._" With those words said, her form began glowing as it shrank and reformed into that of Hayate Yagami. The one that had those platinum-blonde hair and unnaturally-azure eyes... The girl looked around rather dumbly for a few moments as she got reacquainted with the reality.

"I take it, we won?" She asked. And once she received the positive answer, she murmured under her breath: "Unison out." There was a small flash of light as her staff and her knight's clothes disappeared while her eyes and hair returned to their normal colors. At the same time, Reinforce manifested herself by her mistress' side, quickly catching the girl before she could fall into the waters of the bay – after all, no one had taught Hayate-chan to fly...

"I sincerely hope, I don't have to fight a monster like that ever again." Chrono said then in an uncharacteristically-emotional voice. His strong feelings were quite understandable, though. After all, he had just fought against the being capable of wiping the life off entire planets... Not to mention that the previous incarnation of it had cost him his father.

"I will do everything in my powers to prevent the corrupted Defense Program from being reincarnated." The silver-haired beauty replied, causing her mistress to look at her questioningly. "Don't worry, my master, we will definitely see each other again." She said with a small, gentle smile as she handed Hayate over to ever-loyal Signum. "But right now, I have to go and make sure than the tragedies that gave me that dark name will never happen again."

"P-Promise that you will be back?" The young Queen of the Night Sky asked almost tearfully.

"Of course I will be." Reinforce replied, tilting her head to the side quite cutely. "After all, my loving master asked me to."

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	13. In the Aftermath of the victory

The thirteenth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**SonicAnime2010**, I've answered your review via PM.  
**FateBurn**, **Impstar**, **Reader12345678910**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **Ranmaleopard**, **ultima-owner**, **Opinr**, **karthik9**, **serialkeller**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**celf**, a partner and a teammate you say?.. Hm... Actually, Fate might become his teammate (again) in the not-so-distant future.  
**voidzzz**, alas for you, I actually do plan on them eventually becoming more than just friends. But before that happens, Reinforce will indeed spend a lot of time as Harry's mentor and cohabitant. Their romance won't start soon. Or even soonTM. I'd say, it will be at least a full arc (probably with a small timeskip) before anything going beyond just friendship happens between them.  
**MWkillkenny84**, why do that when Starlight Breaker solves everything? Well, Ragnarok in their case.  
**Jose19**, S rank - among other things - requires one's Linker Core to have a mana throughput at a certain level. Which Harry doesn't have naturally. His Lost Logia only replenishes his mana reserves, it doesn't affect how much he can spend within a given time. However, a few arcs down the storyline, he will gain a way to temporarily ascend into S-rank.  
**DestinyVain**, ... The point? If you stop to actually analyze what happened during the battle, you'd notice that without Harry they'd have been forced to sacrifice Japan. Either to Arc-en-Ciel or to NachtWal (if they decide to wait for reinforcements): as overpowered as the rest of that party was, their 'conventional' magic was still not strong enough to breach all of the NachtWal's barriers, even with a battleship assisting them. Thus, even if he was less impressive than some of the others, Harry was the one who made the victory possible. As for making him stronger... That certainly won't happen instantly, but within two arcs he will reach AAA-rank and gain combat effectiveness comparable to that of Signum. /wall of text

*** AN**: There is no spoon!

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter  
chapter XIII: In the Aftermath of the Victory**

Only when Harry finally stepped back aboard of "Arthra" did he finally realize just how spent he was from fighting that abomination of the berserk Defense Program. And then, on captain Harlaown's request, he had also helped those two girls, Arisa and Suzuka, back to their homes. Yet, the night wasn't over for him just yet, and definitely not because it was Christmas.

They might have somehow beaten the Defense Program this time, but unless something more was done, that monster would just return in a couple of days, as powerful and as eager to cause death and destruction as ever. And, from what he had read between the lines, even Reinforce herself, despite being the Master Program of the Tome of the Night Sky, wasn't quite sure what needed to be done in order to prevent that beast's reincarnation.

Speaking of Reinforce... Even without using his magic to scan his surroundings, Harry could feel her unmistakably-massive presence aboard of "Arthra". And she, apparently, was guarded only by the Liese twins and a pair of bridge bunnies! That without any doubts was a huge risk, but right now the young Potter was too tired to really care about that. All he wanted right now was a good dinner and then some much-deserved rest.

Thus, ignoring just about everything and everyone, he headed straight to the kitchens. Once there, the green-eyed teen just heated some microwaveable stuff up, before making his way into the mess. And while Harry didn't really expect it to be choke-full with people – whats with everyone still busy dealing with the aftermath of the battle tonight – he was still kind of surprised to see that the only one there, besides him, was Fate Testarossa. Even then, the blond girl had somehow fallen asleep over her half-eaten dinner... Sighing softly, the green-eyed teen took a seat down the table and began consuming his own meal, while fighting against the desire to doze off himself.

Harry wasn't sure just how much time it took him to eat to his dinner, nor her really cared about that right now, but, eventually, he was done with it. And as he he carried his now-empty tray to the washing machines back in the kitchens, a thought occurred to him that he maybe shouldn't leave Testarossa-san there and, instead, should carry her to the room she shared with her familiar... Yeah, that would probably be the right thing to do...

Sighing, Harry made his way back into the mess. He then picked the sleeping girl up, a bit surprised and much melted by the way she unconsciously tried to snuggle into his chest, and began his not-so-long journey towards the "Arthra"'s living quarters.

Soon enough, the young Potter found himself in front of Testarossa-san's room. Thankfully, it wasn't locked, so he hadn't any problems with getting in... The lights inside were off and the room's only occupant, the orange-haired wolf-girl Arf, who was still wearing her barrier jacket, was fast asleep, sprawled across the only bed in the room. Creeping into the room, Harry carefully laid Fate down onto the unoccupied part of the bed. The said blonde mumbled something unintelligible in her sleep, before rolling over and snuggling into her familiar's side.

His 'mission' complete, the green-eyed teen silently left the girls' room, not forgetting to close the door behind himself, before making way to his own one. Which, thankfully was just a few doors down the corridor. Too tired to really care about that right now, he didn't bother with switching the light on or even undressing; instead he plopped onto his own bed still wearing his Ground Forces uniform.

"Phoenix Claw, wake me up in four hours." He addressed to his device, which acknowledged the command with a brief flicker of lights within its partially-visible crystalline core and a mental nod of sorts... With his alarm clock set, the young Potter allowed himself to drift into the land of dreams...

**~/ *** \~**

A little more than four hours later, still very drowsy Harry made his way to the briefing hall. Reinforce was still there, apparently still looking for the best way to stop the corrupted Defense Program from reincarnating. She wasn't working on that alone anymore, however. She now had Amy-sempai as her helper, even if the brown-haired girl didn't really know much if anything at all about how the Tome of the Night Sky was functioning.

"Mornin'" The green-eyed teen greeted them. Even if it still was night-time in Japan, high above which "Arthra" was positioned at the moment. Both girls greeted him curtly, before returning their attention to the numerous holographic displays with various charts and schemes that were floating around them. "So..." He continued. "Any progress you've made while I've been asleep?" There was a rather long pause, before Reinforce answered:

"It appears that only sure-fire way to completely destroy the Defense Program and its self-regeneration mechanism is for me to absorb it and then delete myself from existence. All other methods we had thought of had a distinct possibility of that corruption surviving and returning for a rematch." Amy confirmed had with a nod of her own.

"I don't think your mistress would like you committing a heroic sacrifice..." Harry commented as he took a seat across the table from his sempai. He then browsed through the notes the two girls had made in last four hours... And he noticed something interesting: "You have been only searching for the ways to completely delete the corrupted Defense Program from existence?" He asked then. "Wouldn't permanently halting the process of its regeneration achieve the same result of preventing it from coming back to cause death and destruction again?" There was a rather long pause. Apparently, neither Reinforce herself, nor Amy-sempai had thought about trying to solve _the problem_ from this angle.

"Actually, that sounds like a route we indeed should explore..." The avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky said finally. "Though, I'm not sure it will bear any fruit as the Defense Program is connected to the Tome very loosely and even I, the Master Program, can't influence it much."

"Well..." The brown-haired engineer spoke up, before asking a few questions: "Since it's a program, does it need to recompile itself as a part of its regeneration process? And if so, does it use its own compiler, or it makes use of the one you can influence?" Reinforce shook her head.

"No, all of the mechanisms required for its regeneration are not accessible to me." The silver-haired beauty replied. Another long pause occurred then as everyone was doing their best to think of another way to halt the corrupted Defense Program's regeneration in a way that wouldn't require Reinforce to commit a heroic sacrifice. Finally, after a few long minutes, an idea dawned upon Harry, and he was quick to share it:

"And would the Defense Program halt is regeneration if there is another active one within the Tome already?" He asked. There was a moment of silence as the girls processed his question.

"What do you mean 'another active one'?" The red-eyed beauty asked.

"If you make a dummy program that would since occupy its spot as a part of the Tome's systems, will the corrupted Defense Program stop regenerating?" The young Potter clarified.

"That might work..." Reinforce replied thoughtfully. "However, constructing even the simplest magical program that will be accepted by the Tome will take time, which we don't have that much. Nonetheless, I should try this one out: it is definitely a better alternative to – as you've so eloquently put it – committing a heroic sacrifice."

"Do you need any help?" Amy-sempai asked next.

"Only if you can really help." The silver-haired beauty responded.

As it was quickly discovered, though, neither Harry nor Amy, despite both of them being rather knowledgeable about developing software for Mid-Childan devices, couldn't provide any meaningful help when it came to the creation of programs for an ancient Lost Logia. As a result, the two of them moved to the sidelines and merely observed Reinforce as she worked on creating the dummy Defense Program for the Tome...

**~/ *** \~**

"Mind if I sit here?" Harry asked as he approached the table occupied by Testarossa-san during the lunch. Looking up at him from her meal, the blond girl shook her head.

"No." She replied while actually moving her tray a little bit to give him some more room... Apparently, his intent to talk to her was too obvious. Well, the green-eyed teen didn't really mind that as that indeed was what he wanted. Though... Now that he was actually sitting across the table from her, the young Potter found himself having troubles with coming up with words to say.

"Well..." He finally began a bit awkwardly. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry." This made Fate raise her eyebrow curiously. Even if Harry had been rather cold towards her this past week since they had been introduced to each other, she didn't remember him doing anything that would outright offend her even once. "Now that I've fought by your side, I can see that you are actually a good person. I still don't know the details of what had happened during the Jewel Seeds incident, but... Whatever the reason you had to collect those, you did it definitely not out of desire to hurt anyone... Now, I didn't know that back during your trial, and I've thought that the Bureau was too lenient on you and wished a greater punishment upon you. And for that, I'm sorry." There was a lengthy pause as the blonde processed what he had just said. "Testarossa-san?" Harry asked, wanting to hear a response, of any kind, from her.

"Fate." The red-eyed girl finally said in a barely audible voice.

"Huh?" The young Potter 'asked', not sure of what her response meant.

"You can call me by my name." Fate clarified. "And I forgive you." Now that she thought about it, those who were unaware of the reason why her ..._mother_ needed the Jewel Seeds, indeed could easily assume that she did for some malicious purpose.

"Thank you." Harry said, really grateful that she didn't hate him. A comfortable silence then fell upon them. However, it didn't last as...

"Forgive me if I'm intruding..." Captain Harlaown said, startling them both as they hadn't seen or heard her approach them. "But there are a few things that I need to inform you of." The teal-haired woman then made a short pause, before addressing Testarossa-san personally. "And I would like to have a few more words with you, Fate-chan, in private later."

"O-Of course, Lindy-san." The blonde girl replied.

"Well then,.." The "Arthra"'s captain said as she took a seat at their table. "First of all, let me once again express my and the Bureau's gratitude for your hard work in resolving this case. Because of your circumstances I can't really give you a field promotions or whatever, but I have sent the letters of recommendation to the headquarters... Harry-kun, you should be getting a promotion to sergeant as well as a reclassification into an A-rank aerial mage once you are back to Mid-Childa."

"Thank you, ma'am." The young Potter replied as he saluted in a bit awkward manner – he was still at the table, after all. Lindy waved her hand dismissively, before turning her attention to Testarossa-san.

"You, will also be promoted, Fate-chan, though, likely only to private first class. And the remaining duration of your mandatory service will be noticeably reduced." The red-eyed blonde nodded.

"Thank you, Lindy-san." She said. After a small pause, she added: "And what about Nanoha-chan?"

"She's a civilian collaborator, so the Bureau can only give her a monetary compensation – you two will be getting those as well, of course – at the moment. However, should she decide to enlist herself into our armed forces, she will be starting at the rank of a sergeant." Fate nodded.

"I see... Thank you."

**~/ *** \~**

It was close to an entire day since she had started working on it, when Reinforce finally announced that she was ready to 'install' the dummy Defense Program into the Tome in attempt to halt the regeneration of the original corrupted one. And, quite understandably, many aboard of "Arthra" wanted to see how this operation went. Thus, aside from the silver-haired avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky herself, a good half of the warship's crew was currently packed into the briefing hall, Lindy, Chrono, Fate, Amy and Harry included.

Reinforce herself had since moved into the corner of the hall, where she stood now, a glowing white Belkan triangle lazily rotating under her feet as the physical Tome, opened at some random page, was levitating in front of her. And there also was a small ball of light hovering above the opened Tome.

"You... gave it a Linker Core?" Amy asked in surprise as a quick scan made by her revealed that the aforementioned ball of light, the dummy Defense Program, indeed possessed its own magical core.

"Yes." Reinforce replied. "Having its own Linker Core is one of the requirements for a magical program to be accepted into the Tome of the Night Sky. The strength of that core, however, doesn't seem to matter. Thankfully. Splintering even that much from myself was not a simple task." That made a few people look at the silver-haired beauty in a small surprise: they hadn't expected her to go that far in her quest to prevent the corrupted Defense Program from reincarnating.

"So... You are going to install that dummy program now? How much time do we still have if that fails?" Captain Harlaown asked.

"That is correct." Reinforce answered the first question. "As for how much time we have before that monster respawns... I'd say, about six hours. Enough for me to have some last words with my master, before absorbing it into myself and deleting us both from existence." Lindy nodded, quite satisfied with that information. "Alright then, shall I begin?" The Master Program of the Tome of the Night Sky asked. Captain Harlaown gave her a nod.

Reinforce then began chanting something under her breath as the Belkan triangle under her feet began changing: first, it duplicated itself into a six-pointed star; and then a ring of runic symbols of Ancient Belkan alphabet surrounded this star, thus forming a 'proper' circle. Once that happened, the white glow coming from the runes intensified, while the the small light that was the dummy Defense Program began descending into the Tome, stopping just a few inches above the pages.

「_Validierung neuer Komponenten..._」 A mechanical voice announced, coming from the seemingly normal hardback book that the physical manifestation of the Tome of the Night Sky was. 「_Validierung erfolgreich..._」It said after a few seconds. And another moment later a few ribbons of light appeared out of the Tome's pages, before connecting themselves to the dummy Defense Program. 「_Installation neuer Komponenten..._」 The Belkan circle underneath Reinforce's feet flashed with white light as the Tome absorbed the new 'Defense Program' into itself. 「_Aktualisiere Register... Vorgang erfolgreich abgeschlossen..._」 With those final words spoken, the Tome snapped itself close.

"It seems that the new program has been accepted by the Tome." Reinforce commented. "Now... Let's see if that would indeed halt the regeneration of the corrupted Defense Program..." A holographic display popped into existence in front of the silver-haired beauty, showing some charts apparently only she herself could understand. There was a pretty long pause as she kept observing the readings on the displays... Then, she finally spoke again: "It seems that installing the dummy program in its slot has indeed stopped the regeneration of the corrupted Defense Program."

"Does that mean that that monster will not be returning this time?" Chrono asked.

"For as long as the physical Tome remains intact." Reinforce replied. "If it ever gets destroyed, so will be the dummy Defense Program I've just installed. And with it gone, the original one will immediately resume its regeneration." Lindy sighed. While the current solution seemed to be working alright, it was too friable to be left as it is.

"I do hope you will take additional measures to ensure that it never happens." She said.

"I will do my best to ensure the safety of the Tome." Reinforce reassured her. "I will also have its simulacrum created to be used as my or my master's device on the battlefield." And everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before they will have to enter one...

"We will do our best to assist you in that task." Captain Harlaown said then. After all, the safer the original Tome will be, the smaller the chance of the corrupted Defense Program making its return was. And making sure that it was never brought to the battlefield went a long way to ensure its safety...

"Thank you." Reinforce replied. She made a small pause, before adding: "Also, Shamal has contacted me yesterday night. It appears that my master will be discharged from the hospital this afternoon because her current condition is stable with no chance of relapses." Indeed, it was the incomplete Tome draining Hayate's mana that made her paraplegic in the first place. With the Tome no longer placing that kind of strain on the girl, her condition would slowly improve. Even her legs would heal naturally, though it will be some time before she is be able to walk on her own.

"I see..." Lindy responded. "I shall contact Nanoha-chan then. She wanted Hayate-chan to be there when she came clean with their friends about them being mages." Making a short pause, the teal-haired woman added then: "It will probably be the best if you accompany them too, Harry-kun."

"Alright." The young Potter agreed. After all, technically, he was the one who told Arisa-san and Suzuka-san about magic.

"Now then..." Captain Harlaown continued. "If you don't have anything else that requires you to be at full power, Reinforce-san, I'd like it if you let us place some limiters on your magic." While her tone remained pleasant, it was blatantly clear that 'no' was not an accepted answer here.

"Very well. However..." The silver-haired beauty replied, before suddenly flaring her killing intent to the point where some members of "Arthra"'s crew present were actually brought to their knees by it. "Harm my master in any way, and I _will_ turn you to dust." She promised in an ice-cold voice. Then her killing intent vanished as she switched back to her normal self. Without anything else said, she followed Lindy and Chrono out of the briefing hall obediently.

It was quite a few seconds, before the people still in the hall began getting better after what had just happened. And as those people began walking back to their stations, Harry turned to Amy.

"Sempai!" He called.

"Yes?" The brown-haired girl said as she stopped walking for a few moments to let the young Potter catch up with her. Then she continued on her way back to the bridge.

"Can I ask you to help me with something later?" He asked, making her raise an eyebrow curiously.

"With what?" She asked, unable to think of any reason he'd need her help now – after all, she was an engineer and a Device Meister, and had something been wrong with his device, he wouldn't have waited to ask her to fix it for this long, would he?

"You see..." Harry began. "I wanted to get my teachers and friends some souvenirs from my first mission, and... I want one of those to be some small cute plush I can give to Megane-sensei's daughter. Something that she'd love when she grows up a little."

"Oh." Amy breathed out. So that was what he wanted her help for.

"And I would also like it if you add a few extras to that toy later on." The green-eyed teen added then.

"Okay." The brown-haired girl replied. "If captain lets me have some free time during the day, I'll help you with that." Harry nodded.

"Thank you."

**~/ *** \~**

It was late in the afternoon or maybe even early in the evening when Harry teleported himself and Fate to the apartments owned by Harlaown family in the Uminari city. From there, the two of them made a quick way to the spot where Nanoha and Hayate were supposed to meet with them before the four of them will head to Arisa's mansion.

The said pair was already there, waiting for them. Along with knight Shamal, who, apparently, had helped her mistress there. Judging by the clothes Yagami-san was wearing, probably straight from the hospital too. Once the greetings – and some subtle threats about what will happen, should Hayate come to harm – were exchanged, the Knight of the Lake left, leaving the four, well, kids to their own devices for the rest of the day.

While Harry had already been there once, this was the first time he had actually taken a good look at the mansion Suzuka lived in. And, well, he was impressed. And, likewise, the Christmas tree in the house's main hall too was very impressive. However, obviously, the whole group wasn't going to spend the entire evening there, and so they soon retired to a veranda where the tea and confections were waiting for them. Then, trading stories began.

The young Potter had answered a few questions about how it was to live on a different planet, but, otherwise, he mostly listened to the stories of Nanoha's and Fate's adventures, just like Hayate, Arisa and Suzuka did. Apparently, those two had had some very interesting things happen around them that didn't find their way into the official reports about the Jewel Seeds incident... For example, he was completely unaware of the fact that Fate actually had a sister, who had been frozen in the state of the clinical death for the last quarter of a century. Nor did he know that Precia Testarossa was collecting the Jewel Seeds in hopes that their power would allow her to revive the said girl.

At one point, as Nanoha was telling her version of the events that had happened at the Garden of Time, she got particularly articulate and at the end of one of her passages ended up with her tea spoon pointed at Arisa's tea cup. And for whatever reason, the said girl immediately shifted away from her cup as if she was expecting Takamachi-san to blow it up with some sort of a beam spell. When Harry inquired about what was going on, the only answer he received was that Nanoha was one of the heirs to the Takamachi clan. As if that explained everything...

That little bit of mystery for Harry aside, the evening passed in a very pleasant way. Alas, it couldn't last forever and, before long, it began getting late. Which meant, it was the time for the three TSAB-aligned mages and Hayate to head back to their homes...

**~/ *** \~**

On the next day, another meeting was supposed to take place. And this one was without any doubts even more important: Nanoha was going to come clean with her family. Both about her being a mage, and about her participating in the events that took place in the Uminari city this past year. And captain Harlaown was going to attend that meeting herself!

Fate was obviously tagging along as it was her chance to spend some more time with Nanoha: their friendship was so obviously romantically tinged that even a blind person could see it. And Lindy had asked Harry to come with them because she thought that it will be a good chance to give the Takamachi family a glimpse at the Bureau from the perspective of someone who had joined it recently and out of his own volition.

What had surprised them all was Reinforce asking to join them. Apparently, the silver-haired beauty felt responsible for what her knights had done – namely, draining Nanoha's Linker Core during their quest to collect the 666 pages for the Tome – and wanted ask the girl's family for forgiveness... After some thinking, Captain Harlaown agreed to let her tag along, probably thinking that her unparalleled knowledge of magic and its history throughout the centuries might come in handy should the Takamachis ask some non-standard questions...

* * *

A brown-haired woman that looked like an older version of Nanoha – the one with her hair down – opened the doors. Nanoha herself could be seen just a few steps behind her in the hall.

"Ah, Lindy-san, Fate-chan, good afternoon. And do come in." Mrs. Takamachi greeted. Apparently, she had met those two before. "Nanoha-chan said that you'll be dropping by. She also mentioned that she has something very important to tell us all."

"Oh, I'm sure of it." Captain Harlaown replied. "This is why we're all here today, after all. Though, truth to be said, I myself had kept a few things from you and your family and would like to come clean now." Nanoha's mother raised her eyebrow, but otherwise hasn't commented on it. Yet.

"Shall we retire to the living room?" She asked instead. Once the four mages had removed their shoes, they were led into quite a spacious lounge, where the rest of the Takamachi family was seated on the mats around a low table. This included two virtually identical brown-haired brown-eyed men, who apparently were Nanoha's father and brother, and a brown-haired green-eyed girl – the only one in the entire family to wear glasses – that happened to be Nanoha's older sister.

"I guess, some introductions are in order." Captain Harlaown stated." Turning her attention to Harry and Reinforce, she continued: "This is Momoko and her husband Shirou Takamachi." She said as nodded towards the woman who greeted them at the doors and the older-looking of the two men. "Their son Kyouka and daughter Miyuki." She introduced the other two 'unknown' members of the Takamachi family. "And, I guess, you all have already met Nanoha-chan..." There was a small pause, before she continued, now addressing to Nanoha instead. "Now then, shall we introduce ourselves properly." The master of the intelligent device Raising Heart nodded.

"I'm Nanoha Takamachi, civilian collaborator to the Time-Space Administrative Bureau, and I'm a triple-A-ranked mage." There was a long pause as her family processed what they had just heard. After all, it was not every day you find out that your ten years old daughter/sister is actually someone who practices magic while working for some organization they had never heard of... Feeling her friend's growing nervousness, Fate too a step closer to Nanoha, discreetly joining their hands.

"So... You are something like a magical girl? Like those in an anime? You wear some frilly dresses and befriend some monsters into not attacking our city?" Miyuki asked, being the first one to overcome her shock over the revelation.

"Actually, over the last seven months your daughter has greatly assisted us in resolving two quite major cases that involved powerful and dangerous ancient magical artifacts." Lindy said. "Anyway, I'm the captain of the Bureau's fifth Dimensional Navy fleet L-class warship "Arthra", Lindy Harlaown. I'm a double-A-ranked mage from administered world #1, Mid-Childa." And under her breath she added something about probably being too out of shape due to all the time she spent doing mission control and pushing papers to placate the bureaucrats above her in the hierarchy.

This revelation probably caused even greater shock among the four non-magical members of the Takamachi family as, apparently, during their first introduction Lindy had pretended to be a civilian. That, and the teal-haired woman certainly didn't fit the portrait of your average captain of a space warship... Fate was the next one to speak:

"I'm Fate Testarossa, Bureau's Dimensional Navy Private third class. I'm a triple-A-ranked mage. Technically, I'm also from Mid-Childa." There was a small pause, before Harry introduced himself:

"My name is Harry Potter, and I'm a private second class from Mid-Childan Ground Forces 95th Battalion. I was temporarily transferred to "Arthra". Officially I'm a B-ranked mage. I was born on the non-administered world 138,.. It's also called Earth." The four older Takamachis turned their attention to Reinforce, who was the only one not to introduce herself.

"And, let me guess,.." Shirou spoke. "You are also a 'mage' from this Bureau?" He asked, making air quotes around 'mage'. The silver-haired beauty shook her head.

"Actually, no, I'm not a part of the TSAB. Yet." After a pause that lasted just a second, she continued: "I'm the avatar of the Master Program of a magical artifact known as the Tome of the Night Sky. My master has bestowed the name 'Reinforce' upon me." There was a long pause, which was eventually broken, again, by Mr. Takamachi.

"Alright. You all are magic users, right? And you all work or will be working for this 'Bureau'?" He received a round of nods. "Oka-a-ay... Can you please explain this all in more details?"

"Of course." Captain Harlaown said with a nod. "That's what we are here for, after all. Now then, where shall I begin?.."

**~/ *** Meanwhile on the non-administered world 138 *** \~**

"My God, Albus, what happened to you!?" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed as the Hogwarts's headmaster staggered into her domain, while pressing his left hand to a dangerously-bleeding deep wound on the left side of his stomach. He was also sporting some signs of having been on the receiving end of a few mildly-dark cutting and blasting curses recently.

"It looks like I'm not as young anymore as I tended to believe, Poppy." Dumbledore said as he took as seat on the closest bed available in the hospital wing. "Ten years ago I would have escaped such a confrontation without a scratch." The Hogwarts's matron gave him a silent glare since he wasn't exactly telling her what she needed to hear. Sighing, Albus gave the answers the nurse wanted from him: "The Dark Lord's agent within the castle decided that it was the time for him to make some... greater steps to further his master's goals. And those steps, apparently, involved him taking my blood against my will, before disposing me off. And while he definitely succeeded with the former, he failed with the latter: not only I'm alive, but were we not in the Entrance hall, I would have taken him down. Alas, he managed to slip out of the castle and retreated into the Forbidden forest."

"I see..." Madam Pomfrey said after a short pause. "Let me treat your wound, it can be poisoned or cursed heavily." Knowing that arguing with her was not the wisest thing he could do at the moment, Albus allowed her to do what she wanted, however, he did tell her his observations about that wound.

"The blood my attacker took from me will definitely be used in some sort of a dark ritual." The Hogwarts's headmaster commented. "Hence, it has to be uncontaminated. And because of that, the only curse my wound has on it is the one that prevents my blood from clotting. Alas, I'm not very skilled at healing charms myself, otherwise I'd have removed that curse already." Poppy nodded.

"And Fawkes?" She asked.

"He has taken a killing curse for me while I was still recovering from being impaled. He won't be able to help me any for at least a couple of days." Nodding again as she finished removing the curse, madam Pomfrey spelled the wound on headmaster's stomach shut, while summoning a few vials of blood-replenishing potions from the hospital wing's stores.

"Here, I'm sure you need these." She said, handing the aforementioned vials to Albus. "What are you going to do next? This activity of the Dark Lord's followers is highly-troubling." She said next.

"Well, I'm going to fully mobilize the Order. This time, hopefully, we will have enough of a head-start to prevent the worst of the tragedies." Dumbledore replied. "Also, I will have a meeting with the Minister as soon as possible. And while I'm quite aware that Mr. Malfoy is buying him with his gold, I'm sure I can make Cornelius see some reason. Especially if I don't mention the Death Eaters and their boss directly." Poppy nodded.

"I see..." She said. "And let's hope that you are right and this time we will be able to minimize the damage the Dark Lord will cause..."

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	14. The Incident is Over

The fourteenth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**serialkeller**, **ultima-owner**, **lordamnesia**, **Ranmaleopard**, **celf**, **god of all**, **MWkillkenny84**, **Opinr**, **karthik9**, **jamnaz79**, **BBWulf**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Penny is wise**, **SonicAnime2010**, **Impstar**, **Jose19**, **Masked Critic**, I've answered your reviews via PMs.  
**FateBurn**, for the time being, it won't affect Harry's life at all - Voldemort can't really stretch his influence beyond the British Isles at the moment; how can he hope to affect someone on a different planet? But, eventually, the two of them are going to meet on the battlefield. In a not-so-distant future three arcs down the storyline.  
**stux**, thanks. Fixed.  
**Megami-tan**, Harry will be (temporarily) paired with Fate when they both are working as investigators for the Bureau. Not that it will divert Fate's affection away from a certain devil... As for why I have Lindy as a navy captain only, I put it right before the first chapter: some characters have their ranks altered to fit better with their roles in the story. Don't worry, though, Lindy is going to be promoted to rear admiral soon.  
**Knight of the Iron Hammer Vita**, no, there will be no Materials, at least within the planned arcs.

*** AN**: As you might have noticed, this chapter had gone through a development hell. And I'm still far from satisfied with how it turned out. Yet, I don't think I can improve it any. So, here we go...

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XIV: The Incident is Over  
**

It was five days since the battle against the Tome of the Night Sky's corrupted Defense Program and "Arthra" was now getting ready to depart for the Bureau's headquarters. Nanoha, who was called upon to testify in the court case against Reinforce and her knights, had already moved aboard earlier this morning – apparently, her parents were quite alright with letting their ten years old daughter to go with the aliens to another planet for a couple of weeks all by herself... Such strange people they are...

And with Reinforce also aboard already, all that was needed to do before "Arthra" could set sails was collecting Hayate and the Wolkenritter. Well, the knights actually could teleport themselves and their mistress up there all by themselves, but no one had given them the necessary coordinates. Yet. Plus, letting them come in without any 'guards' accompanying them would be a breach of protocols... Hence, Chrono, Harry and Fate were sent to get them.

The three of them teleported to the apartment Harlaown apartment, and from there they made a quick walk to the the Yagami residence. Hayate and her knights – all of whom, sans Zafira who turned into a big blue wolf, were dressed in casual clothes instead of their armors – were already waiting for them in front of the house, their things packed into two big valises.

"I see, you are all prepared to leave." Chrono said without as much as 'hello'. It was one of his faults: whenever he was incited about some job, he tended to go all-business to the point of dropping most forms of politeness out his speech if his superiors weren't around. Thankfully, Harry and Fate were there to counterbalance the enforcer-in-training as the two of them greeted Hayate and her knights.

"Yes, we are ready to follow you aboard of warship "Arthra"." Signum replied, but not before giving a polite nod of greeting to Testarossa-san. Apparently, those two were on rather friendly terms even if they had been enemies until just five days ago.

"Is the house surrounded by a barrier?" Chrono asked next as he eyed the property. Indeed, now that Harry concentrated, he could pick some traces of powerful passive magics surrounding the house, or at least its backyard, in a protective cocoon of barriers.

"Yes, we did install some defenses back when have been first activated to serve mistress Hayate." Shamal spoke. "No magic that happens within the house should be noticeable by those who lack in power to be mages. The barriers should also be able to make standard magic sensors ineffective at best, but that's not important right now." Well, that would certainly explain why no one had been able to find the knights' base of operation when they still were the 'bad guys', even if it was just half a dozen blocks away from the Takamachi household.

"In that case, why don't we depart from inside of your house instead?" Chrono asked then. As both the knights and the Bureau representatives nodded in agreement, the eight of them entered the house, which, Harry noted, was quite spacious and well-furnished. For a brief moment the green-eyed teen wondered how Hayate came to own this house at her age, but he quickly squashed the desire to ask this question: orphans don't magically appear out of thin air – this must be her parents' house or something like that and asking about it would not only be impolite but could also possibly bring back the memories the brown-haired girl would rather forget...

"How are we going to be proceed from there?" Signum asked then. This question was followed by a somewhat lengthy discussion as the group was coming to a decision on whom each of the three Bureau agents will be taking to "Arthra". In the end, it was decided that Fate will be the one to teleport Hayate: she was the only one whom Signum was willing to entrust her mistress to – a declaration that made the blonde girl blush quite a bit. Harry will be transporting Shamal and Zafira, while the remaining two knights ended up with the black-haired enforcer-in-training as their 'guide'.

"Alright!" Amy said as her communication window popped into existence in front of the group. "You have our permission for the transfer. Captain's waiting for you." Chrono thanked her curtly, before nodding to Harry, who was supposed to go first. Nodding back, the young Potter manifested the spell.

"Ready?" He asked the two knights. Receiving their nods, he activated the magic. "**Dimensional Transfer!**" The green-eyed agent of the Bureau called and a moment later the three of them disappeared from the Hayate's house in a flash of light. A second later they reappeared in the "Arthra"'s transportation chamber. Reinforce and captain Harlaown herself were there to greet them... Not intending to stall others, Harry, Shamal and Zafira stepped off the platform and moved to stand besides the aforementioned pair of ladies.

"_Harry-san?_" The blond knight asked telepathically. "_Can I ask you why your magical circle is so ...unique?_" Indeed, the four Wolkenritter and Reinforce herself had been active at various points of time throughout the last few millenniums, yet they had never seen anything like that. They've actually meant to ask him this question ever since they had seen him use his magic in the battle against the corrupted Defense Program. It's just they haven't had a good chance to do that until now...

"_No idea, really._" The teen gave his answer. "_It was like that ever since I first accessed my magic._"

"_Oh, okay..._" Shamal replied, not really sure what else she could say here.

Meanwhile, Fate teleported in with Hayate and the baggage. And a few seconds after that Harry was treated to a sight of Reinforce being all emotional as she showered her mistress with loads and loads of motherly – and not so motherly too – affection... Affection that the wheelchair-bound girl eagerly reciprocated. That was such a heartwarming scene that Harry almost missed Chrono bringing the remaining two knights aboard of "Arthra". Lindy, though, didn't.

"Alright." The teal-haired captain announced. "We're ready to set sails." Then she turned to look at the Queen of the Night Sky. "Hayate-chan, do you want to take a look at your planet before we slip into the Dimensional Sea?" She asked then. The brown-haired girl looked up from Reinforce's bosom, which she had been snuggling into at the moment.

"Can I?" She asked.

"Of course." Captain Harlaown replied. Hayate looked at the silver-haired avatar of the Tome's Master Program then. The said beauty nodded.

"Alright." She said. "Shall we head there, master?" Reinforce asked as she began pushing Hayate's wheelchair towards the "Arthra"'s bridge...

* * *

Much later that day, after the dinner, Harry found himself in the wardroom enjoying an enlightening conversation about the origins of the TSAB with Yuuno: the boy's grandfather was actually the one who wrote the history book that the Bureau's cadets had to study as a part of their graduation exam. But the young Potter also couldn't help but steal glances at Reinforce from time to time.

The said red-eyed beauty had settled on one of the sofas, apparently content to just sit there cradling dozing off Hayate, who sat sideways in her lap with her head resting against her ample chest, in a gentle and loving embrace.

Yet, for whatever reason, Harry still had troubles with thinking about Reinforce as something other than a magical juggernaut that she was on a battlefield. This was probably the reason why he felt the need to take look at her once in a while, to confirm that she really was a human being and not just a magical weapon of mass destruction that happened to look like one... That, and she was beautiful. And Harry was a teenaged boy after all...

**~/ *** \~**

"Good afternoon, Cornelius." Dumbledore said as he walked into the Minister for Magic's office. The said man hummed something not really intelligible to acknowledge the Chief Warlock's presence, but for the next few seconds he continued reading some document. Finally, placing that long roll of parchment onto his table, Mr. Fudge greeted Albus back:

"Ah, professor, it's nice to see that you are once again with us." While Cornelius had distanced himself from Dumbledore a little bit in the recent months, their relationship was still pretty friendly.

"Yes, Poppy can work miracles." The Hogwarts's headmaster agreed: it took madam Pomfrey just a few days to bring him back to full health after the Dark Lord's agent had impaled him through his gut. "Anyhow, Cornelius, there are some important things that I need to discuss with you, in private if you don't mind." Nodding, the Minister asked the auror guard stationed in his office to temporarily leave. Once the man walked out of the door, Dumbledore applied a few quick but powerful wards to make eavesdropping impossible. Even by the 'bugs' already inside the office, as long as those were purely magical in nature.

"Alright, what did you want to talk about, professor?" Mr. Fudge asked.

"The recent increase in the activity of the darker elements is troubling. First, there was that incident during the Quidditch World Cup; then there is the case of an attack on that muggle village in the upper England; and now someone had tried to outright assassinate me." Albus said. "Maybe, you should reconsider your decision about cutting the budget of the DMLE, Cornelius. Doing that right now will only make the situation worse."

"B-But I've already promised to do that!" Minister replied. "What would happen to my ratings if I suddenly go back on my word and do exactly the opposite?" Dumbledore shook his head.

"There are things more important that those ratings, Cornelius." The Chief Warlock of Wizengamot said in a wise grandfatherly tone. "It's your duty as the Minister for Magic to ensure that our country is a safe and peaceful place to live. And seeing how this is all about national security, I'm sure that people will understand your change of mind." This made Mr. Fudge pause as he thought about it. On one hand, he was a politician who greatly enjoyed the perks of his position and didn't want to lose it. But he was also a patriot and he didn't want his country to turn into a hotbed of criminal activity in Europe...

"You are probably right, professor. I will see what I can do. But you know how everything works here, right? I can't really promise you anything about this." He said after a rather long pause. Dumbledore nodded: this was as much as he could possibly get out of the Minister today.

**~/ *** \~**

"Arthra" finally arrived to the Bureau's headquarters in the late afternoon of the next day. And by the time the warship finally entered the docks, there was a whole dozen of enforcers, easily distinguished by their black uniforms, and about thirty more combat mages already waiting for them... Well, their presence was understandable as Reinforce and the Wolkenritter were considered to be criminals; their numbers, however... Even captain Harlaown was surprised by the amount of manpower the TSAB had sent to secure those five.

Once the docking sequence was completed, the enforcers stepped aboard of "Arthra". Lindy then had a brief conversation with their apparent leader. As it turned out, aside from getting the knights and the Tome's Master Program to the holding cells, they had also been tasked with escorting Yagami-san to the medical bay so that she could be given a complete magical physical.

At that point Reinforce stepped in and pointed out that Shamal should accompany Hayate to that medical bay – the blond knight was the healer of their little group and her knowledge of their mistress' condition could be very helpful to the local doctors. And the silver-haired beauty also implied that doing so would make her more cooperative as well.

Since that was a reasonable suggestion, the enforcers took into consideration and, after coordinating it with their superiors, agreed to it.

Thus, the small army the TSAB had sent to secure the Tome's Master Program and her knights split into two uneven parts. The smaller one, consisting of just two enforcers and five 'normal' mages escorted Hayate and Shamal towards the medical bay, while the rest of the Bureau operatives plus Chrono headed for the holding cells. Oh, and for whatever reason the Liese twins went with that group instead of going back to their master's side. And, at least to Harry, it looked almost as if those two were criminals themselves...

"Alright..." Nanoha said after a long pause when the enforcers had finally left "Arthra". "We're supposed to stay put here for the next few days so that they can question us, right?" Captain Harlaown nodded. "What shall we be doing then? I mean..." Indeed, at this giant space station in the middle of the Dimensional Sea there wasn't much that could pass as an entertainment for ten years old girls.

"Well... I think you should visit Mariel-chan to make sure that Raising Heart and Bardiche are in a good condition. You two have put quite a lot of stress on your devices during that last battle." Amy spoke up as she approached them.

"That sounds like a good idea." Lindy agreed with the brown-haired engineer.

"And I'll just tag along. It's been months since I've spoken to Mari-sempai in person." Harry added, confusing the hell out of Nanoha and Fate.

"You know Atenza-san, Harry-kun?" Takamachi-san asked, surprise clear in her voice. The green-eyed teen leveled a playfully accusing glare at Amy.

"Sempai, you never told them that, did you?" Sighing as his sempai just shrugged in response, Harry elaborated: "Amy-sempai, Mari-sempai and I myself were all apprenticed under warrant officer Kyoko Chidori together. Technically, I'm still her apprentice, though Quint Nakajima-sensei is usually the one to train me these days." Since neither Nanoha nor Fate could really recognize those names, they just nodded, accepting his explanation. Lindy, on the other hand, definitely knew about the purple-haired investigator. And while she too didn't say anything out aloud, it was clear as a day to the young Potter that "Arthra"'s captain was reevaluating him in her head.

"Anyway..." Amy broke the sudden pause. "Shall we go pay Mari-chan a visit now?"

* * *

"Oh, hello, guys!" Mariel greeted her guests as she looked up from her workplace – a table that was littered with a few half-assembled cores, other devices' components and piles of paper blueprints with a cup of coffee lost somewhere among this chaos.

"Good afternoon, sempai." Harry greeted back. Then he looked round her table. "Looks like they keep you busy these days." The green-haired Device Meister nodded.

"Yeah, since we now have a successful case of integration of the Belkan Cartridge System into the third generation Mid-Childan intelligent devices, the higher-ups want to upgrade all such devices currently in use. And, they also want me to assist with the development of the fourth generation devices, that would include the Cartridge System by default." Well, that would certainly explain why Mari's table was swamped by this mountain of papers... Meanwhile, the young Device Meister continued: "Speaking of which, how are Raising Heart and Bardiche? Let me have a look at them."

"Okay." Nanoha said as she and Fate handed their devices to Mariel. The green-haired girl, accepting them, paused for a moment, before addressing to Harry:

"While we are at it, let me see how you 'Claw is doing as well." And while his device was completely fine – it was built to withstand a lot of punishment, after all – the young Potter nonetheless removed his 'bracer' and gave it to his sempai, who them made her way to a diagnostic machine standing in the corner of her office. Placing the devices in it, Mariel turned the machine on and input a few commands into it to make it run an analysis on the three devices.

A bit surprisingly, at least for Harry and Amy, it took the machine only a few minutes to complete the diagnosis, at which point it popped a multitude of holographic displays all around Mariel, showing her about everything it managed to 'learn' about the devices it had just tested.

"Well..." The green-haired Device Meister began once she had made heads or tails of these reports. "Phoenix Claw is in a good condition, as expected." She said as handed the said device back to Harry, who quickly slipped it back onto its place on his right hand. "Bardiche is also alright. Though, Fate-chan, if you plan on use Zanber form a lot, I should strengthen the frame a bit more, lest it fails at the worst possible moment."

"Could you please do that anyway, Mari-san?" The blond girl said after a small pause. "We will be here at the headquarters for the next week or so... Will that be enough of time for you to upgrade Bardiche?" Mariel nodded.

"I'll do my best to complete it before "Arthra" has to leave." She promised. Nodding at Fate's 'Thank you', she continued, now addressing to Nanoha: "Raising Heart, on the other hand, needs to undergo maintenance: Exelion mode puts too much stress on its frame. It has been less than a month and it already has some miniature fractures." Takamachi-san pouted, mumbling something unintelligible under her breath, but, nonetheless, allowed Mari to take Raising heart from her so that it could be repaired. "Alright then." The green-haired Device Meister continued. "Want some tea? I was about to have a break anyway."

Of course, with everyone sharing the stories that had happened around them in the past weeks, this tea break lasted far longer than Mariel intended. But did she mind this? Probably, no...

**~/ *** \~**

Late in the morning next day – or at least it was so according to the clock: daytime and nighttime looked absolutely no different from each other here in the middle of the Dimensional Sea – Harry was summoned to the Enforcer division headquarters to bear witness in the court case against Reinforce and the Wolkenritter.

A grumpy man in black uniform met him at the headquarters' entrance and guided the green-eyed teen trough a couple of corridors that were not much different from those in any other military facility and to a 'guest' room that was essentially a more pleasant version of an interrogation chamber. In there another, even more grumpy, enforcer was already waiting for him, seated behind a large but plain table.

"Let's get straight to business." The man said. "Sergeant Potter of Mid-Childan Ground Forces 95th Battalion?" Harry raised an eyebrow. True, captain Harlaown had told him that he will get a promotion, but he honestly hadn't expected that to happen so quickly. Nonetheless, he gave the enforcer a positive reply. "Good. Now tell me about the guardian knights of the Tome of the Night Sky."

"I haven't met them until the battle against the corrupted Defense Program, so... But from my personal experiences, they are decent people. I actually kind of owe my life to the two of them even." Here the green-eyed teen made a small pause. "The four of them seem to genuinely care about their mistress, Hayate Yagami, though not much about anyone else besides her..." It appeared that the stoic knight of the sword, Signum, also had a soft spot for one Fate Testarossa, but Harry decided not to mention that explicitly. "They did threaten us with retaliation should we harm their mistress, but beyond that they have been most cooperative during and after the battle." The enforcer questioning him nodded. He didn't need to write anything down himself as his device was recording the questioning for him.

"And what about the Master Program?" The man asked then.

"Reinforce?" The young Potter replied. "Well, ever since she had been separated from the corrupted Defense Program, she has been non-hostile towards us. Also, while I'm definitely not the best one at reading others' emotions, she appears to lack any desire to hurt or kill others: according to her, the original purpose of the Tome was to merely collect and preserve magical knowledge. Reinforce cares about Hayate-san and her knights very much, but is mostly neutral towards the others." The enforcer across the table nodded again.

"So,.. You are saying that the corrupted Defense Program was what had turned the Tome's Master Program into a planet killer?" He asked then.

"It appears to be so." Harry confirmed. There was a pause that lasted for a few seconds, before the man in the black uniform spoke again:

"And one more question, sergeant. What can you tell us about Hayate Yagami-san?" Harry gained a thoughtful look for a few moments: he hadn't interacted with her much as she usually hanged around Reinforce and the Wolkenritter or Nanoha and Fate.

"Well, according to her knights, she is the most kind and loving mistress they have ever had." The green-eyed teen finally began. "And based on what I've observed, that might actually be not far from the truth. And... I can't really see her ordering the Wolkenritter to attack people in order to collect the pages for the Tome." The enforcer questioning him leaned back in his chair.

"Alright. This would be all for now." He said. "We thank you for your cooperation with us, sergeant. We ask you to remain within the headquarters for the next few days in case we have some more questions we would like to ask you." Harry nodded, even if he'd rather return to Mid-Childa.

"Very well." He replied. The enforcer behind the table then nodded to his colleague, who in turn proceeded to show the young Potter out.

**~/ *** \~**

There had been no further questions the enforcers wanted to ask Harry, though. Actually, the trial on the case of Reinforce and her knights itself was held on the fifth day since the arrival of "Arthra" to the Bureau headquarters.

Hayate-san, somehow, ended on the dock too... Thankfully, she was only charged with negligence and thus her punishment was a mere year of probation only. And she wasn't even required to remain on the administered worlds to serve her sentence.

The Wolkenritter, of course, didn't get off as easily. The four knights received the sentence of twelve years of mandatory service and fifteen more years of probation for endangering civilian population of a non-administered world, multiple cases of assault on Bureau's personnel and civilian collaborators. And for the first three years, they were to wear the limiters to restrict their powers to just B rank. And that was only for whatever they had done in their current incarnation...

Thankfully for them, the court took their familiar-like status into consideration and decided to permit them to be by their mistress' side, two at a time and with the condition that the time they spend off the administered worlds would not count towards their mandatory service time or probation. Not that the Wolkenritter minded it all that much as they won't be completely separated from Hayate...

Reinforce got even harsher punishment. Partially because she didn't have the exculpation of being essentially reborn with each reincarnation of the Tome. At least, since everyone agreed that the past Book of Darkness incidents had been caused by the corrupted Defense Program, she won't be locked away in the prison until the end of times... Instead, she was facing thirty years of mandatory service with fifty more years of probation on top of that; her unison abilities will be sealed away; and she'll have to add all of the spell knowledge she had accumulated over the millenniums of her existence to the Infinite Library. And, of course, she will have to wear the magic limiters too. Twelve in her case; out of which six would be permanent, three more could be temporarily released by the current commanders of the TSAB and the final three would be controlled by her mistress, once she was done with her own probation.

Just like her knights, Reinforce didn't protest her punishment. She did make one single request, though. The silver-haired beauty wanted to transfer the guardian knights from herself directly to her mistress, but since she wasn't sure about the power requirements for that, she wanted to be allowed to do that before the final six limiters sealed her power under the double-S rank. The panel of judged was actually surprised by the nature of her request, however, after some debates, they decided to give Reinforce a green light and let her do that.

**~/ *** \~**

With the Book of Darkness incident now officially over, everyone was about to go their separate ways: Nanoha and Hayate, the latter accompanied by two of her knights, Shamal and Vita, would return back to the non-administered world 97; Harry would rejoin his battalion on Mid-Childa; Fate and Arf, being a part of "Arthra"'s crew, would remain aboard of the warship for the time being; Yuuno and Chrono would stay at the headquarters to keep an eye on Reinforce while she uploaded her spell knowledge into the Infinite Library; and Signum and Zafira would go to whatever world and unit the Bureau commanders would assign them to.

Thus, before everyone split up for gods know how long, captain Harlaown decided to throw a small party for everyone aboard of "Arthra". While the idea was a good one, however, for whatever reason, the party itself didn't turn out as fun as Lindy had envisioned it. After all, it was more or less that type of a gathering where people were basically bidding farewell to each other... Not that it was a wasted time, though, as while some, like Hayate and Reinforce, were just telling goodbye, the others were actually solving some quite important problems...

"So,..." Harry began a bit awkwardly as he approached the pink-haired knight of the sword, who was sitting in the corner of the hall quietly. "Do you still not know what unit you will be assigned to?" He asked. Signum took a sip from her cup, before answering:

"Actually, we've been contacted about an hour ago by the TSAB commanders." She said. "I was assigned to the 73rd Capital Air Force Wing on Mid Childa." If the young Potter remembered correctly, the said wing had its base located about twenty miles to the north-east of Cranagan...

"And the others, if it's not a secret?" He prodded.

"Well..." The leader of the Wolkenritter began. She paused for a moment, before deciding that it would be okay to reveal this information to him. "It seems that we all will be serving our sentences on Mid-Childa for the time being: Shamal will be joining the Ninth Medical and Sanitary Battalion; Zafira was assigned to the Fourth Ground Forces Academy as an assistant instructor for unarmed combat; and Vita is going to be a part of the 75th Capital Air Force Wing."

"And Reinforce? Once she's done at the Infinite Library that is." Harry asked next.

"Our mistress was assigned to the 102nd Ground Forces Battalion." The pink-haired knight replied.

"I see..." The young Potter replied, while trying to deduce the reasons why the four knights and their even more powerful mistress would be placed into the units stationed not only on the same planet, but within the same region on it. The very region containing the planet's capital, actually... "And where will you all be living?" He asked meanwhile. After all, Cranagan, like pretty much any other megalopolis, was not a place you could just come to and get yourself a residence without having either connections or lots of money.

"We will probably stay at the barracks of our units." Signum said after thinking about it for a second. "Or, alternatively, we might rent a room or two at some of the Bureau's hostels within the city."

"Hm..." Even years later, Harry still wouldn't be able to explain what possessed him to say this, but he never regretted it: "I do own a pretty big apartment. If and when I finish the renovations to make it truly habitable, you can move in there with me." There was a pause as Signum definitely hadn't expected to hear something like that from him – she had thought him to be far less trusting than that...

"And how much needs to be done before you can move in there?" Chrono, who had approached them just in time to hear their discussion of the lodging problems, asked.

"Well..." The young Potter began: "Most of the furniture needs to replaced; wallpapers in the living room have come unstuck in a few places, so they should be replaced as well... The rest aren't this bad, but I'd replace them too. And then the kitchen and the bathroom would benefit from some upgrades as well..." He said. The enforcer-in-training was silent for a few moments before giving his answer:

"That's quite a lot of things... I'm not sure it all can be done in less than a week even if you offer a huge bonus for promptness." Harry's face at that moment told Chrono that money were an issue here as well. "Don't worry, I know someone who wouldn't mind sponsoring these renovations." He added with a smile that was not at all convincing that whoever that someone was, he or she would part with his money all that willingly. "So, do you want my assistance with refurbishing your apartment?"

"Alright." Harry said after a rather long pause.

"I shall arrange for the workers tomorrow morning." The enforcer-in-training continued. "You should prepare the designs for what you want in the meantime. Just don't go overboard – your sponsor doesn't have infinite wealth." The young Potter just nodded in response...

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!

*** AN**: Three guesses, who will sponsor the creation of "villain central" on Mid-Childa.


	15. Upgrades

The fifteenth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**Ranmaleopard**, **jgkitarel**, **solitare**, **FateBurn**, **serialkeller**, **ultima-owner**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **celf**, **Penny is wise**, **Opinr**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Megami-tan**, yes, even if Eins is still alive, Zwei (though she'll go by a different name) will eventually be created. As for Harry and Fate working together... can't really say that it will happen soon, but it will happen.  
**MWkillkenny84**, I think Raising Heart is more of a blood knight than her mistress. Not that Nanoha herself is shy about befriending people...  
**Jose19**, I've answered your review via PM.  
**The 10th Wand**, about money "issue" - Harry has spent almost all of his seed money on buying the apartment (1 kg of gold costs about $38600 right now; so unless Mid-Childa has awesomely-cheap real estate, a four-rooms apartment like Harry's will be QUITE expensive).  
**SonicAnime2010**, we've discussed the issue via PM and agreed to disagree. Still, I hope you will find it in yourself to come back and be my reader and reviewer once again one day...

*** AN**: Apparently, the development hell was bigger than I've anticipated: this chapter too took me quite some time to write... Also, the plush Harry had bought for Lutecia will play a rather important role in a couple of arcs.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**ch****apter XV: Upgrades**

'_At long last._' Harry thought as the shuttle began descending towards Cranagan. Just a little bit more, and he will be back home! There still were a few things – like writing a proper report on his participation in the Book of Darkness incident for captain Steinmetz and other commanders of the 95th Battalion – that he needed to do before he could get his leave warrant, but...

Granted he probably won't have much time to relax properly during his leave this time, what's with managing the renovations of his apartment and all, but those were 'good' troubles and something he didn't really mind.

Speaking of renovations... While the designs of the kitchen, the bathroom and even the living room didn't need to be changed much to accommodate his new cohabitants, the same couldn't be said about the rest of the rooms: the Wolkenritter did need space for themselves after all. Even Zafira, despite his insistence that he will be fine regardless.

Thus, the the three remaining rooms got their roles changed. The smallest one, the designated future nursery, was given to Zafira. It would also be the place where the less often used things belonging to the knights will be stored. The master bedroom would be moved to the middle room, while its former room, became a place where the three female knights and Reinforce – and Hayate too, if and when she comes to visit – will be nestling. Not the most fair of arrangements, true, but it was a passable one...

With that in mind, the young Potter spent the flight from the Bureau headquarters to Mid-Childa flipping through some interior design catalogs he had downloaded onto his device, looking for some ideas and solutions he would like to see used in his renovated apartment.

Alas, the flight was nearly over as the shuttle was already descending towards the landing pad located in the TSAB administrative complex at the very heart of Cranagan, and so he had to postpone further study of the catalogs until later... Oh well, at least the workers Chrono had hired for him had something to do for the next two or so days without him putting forth a request for the new furniture.

Closing the holographic display, he turned to look at the two knights seating besides him. Zafira was currently packing a book he had been reading until now, Ground Forces regulation judging by the cover, into his bag. And Signum was 'waking up' – as if resting with her eyes closed prevented the pink-haired swordswoman from being keenly aware of everything that had been happening around her.

"Well..." Harry began a bit awkwardly. "Welcome to Mid-Childa, I guess." He said, before asking: "You do have your identifications, right?" The two knights nodded.

"Yes, they had us obtain them after the trial." Signum added.

"Alright." The green-eyed teen replied, feeling a bit relieved that he won't have to drag them to the Migration Services offices. "And you've decided to stay at the barracks of your respective units the apartment is ready, right?" The knights nodded again. "Then, I guess, I'll be a bad host and won't accompany you to your units' locations."

"Don't worry about that." Zafira reassured him. The two Wolkenritter were quite capable of getting to their respective units by themselves, after all. And they could understand that Harry had other things he had to do today, other than guiding them around the city all day.

"Thank you." The young Potter said with a nod as the three of them joined the queue of people disembarking from the shuttle.

* * *

Even if the written reports didn't have to be submitted right away, Harry still had to drop by own battalion and notify his commanding officers that he was back. And, of course, like it always was in any proper bureaucracy, something that could be done in five minutes instead took at least an hour to complete. Thus, by the time the green-eyed teen finally got back to the hostel room he was currently still living in, he barely had any strength left in him...

Just as he walked into his room, his attention was drawn by a very familiar hoot coming from just outside the window. Indeed, Hedwig was sitting there on a tree branch as she waited for him. How she knew that he was back from his assignment, the young Potter wasn't sure he'll ever understand. Hedwig was a clever girl, though, she must have figured that out somehow...

Opening the window to let her in, Harry collapsed onto the bed, too tired to do anything else at the moment. Unpacking his things and contacting the Nakajimas so that he could get Hedwig's things back could wait till tomorrow. With that thought in mind, he drifted off...

**~/ *** \~**

"So that is where she disappeared yesterday in the early evening." Quint said once Harry – with his owl perched on his shoulder – dropped by the Nakajima residence the next morning.

"Yea, she somehow felt that I've returned and flew there to greet me, such a clever girl." The green-eyed teen commented while stroking Hedwig's feathers. The said bird 'thanked' him with a smug hoot. "Anyway, sensei, I'm done with that assignment." He continued. "So, I'll be taking Hedwig's things back... She didn't cause you too much trouble, did she?"

"No, not at all." The purple-haired knight replied. "Actually, I think my girls enjoyed taking care of her. Maybe Genya and I should get them some pet?.." She asked no one in particular. "And, what that assignment was, if it's not a secret? I managed to dig up that your transfer orders originated from counter admiral Graham, but beyond that..." She asked then. Harry chuckled.

"Not from someone like you." He said. Indeed, a successful investigator like her wouldn't be kept in the dark about this for long. Especially with Reinforce and the Wolkenritter joining the Bureau. "I had been assisting with resolving a Book of Darkness incident. The very last one." The purple-haired beauty had definitely heard a lot of stories about this particular Lost Logia, thus learning that her kind-of student had to face that monster on a battlefield definitely shocked and upset her.

"Oh my..." Quint breathed out. "That's one hell of a baptism of fire, though..." Well, Harry totally agreed with her on this one. There was a pretty long pause, before she continued, in a much more cheerful tone: "Anyway, you're here to take your owl's things away, right? Let's go get them."

"Yeah." The young Potter agreed. "But before that... Well... Here..." He said as he handed his sensei a bundle wrapped in cheerfully-colorful paper. "A few souvenirs from the non-administered world ninety-seven for you. Nothing truly imaginative, but..." He explained.

"Oh." The purple-haired knight breathed out. "You didn't have to, Harry." The said teen merely waved his hand in response, telling her that it was alright.

"Also,.." He continued: "Where can I find Megane-sensei these days? I have some for her and little Lulu too." Quint was silent for a few moment as she tried to decide what she should do about it. In the end, she decided to just give her friend's contacts to Harry and let the two of them arrange something between themselves. "Thank you, sensei." He said as he saved Megane's number into his phone book. The purple-haired knight in front of him just smiled in response.

An annoyed hoot from Hedwig then reminded them both that Harry originally came here to collect her things. Quint playfully chided the said snowy owl for being too pushy – to which the bird responded with another hoot – before leading the young Potter into Ginga's and Subaru's room where the cage, the perch and other supplies were kept...

* * *

In the afternoon, Harry paid visit to his other mentor, 'doctor' Kyoko Chidori, bringing the souvenirs he had bought for her along, of course. When he had arrived to her office, the blond scientist was looking through what he recognized as Mariel-sempai's report on the interactions between the Belkan Cartridge System and the Mid-Childan Intelligent Devices.

"Following the Mari-chan's success with Raising Heart and Bardiche, the higher-ups decided that as many of the agents as possible should have the Cartridge Systems installed into their devices." The Device Meister said. "Of course, the on-field commanding officers will be the first ones to receive such upgrades, but..." Here a somewhat mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. "Since you are my student, Harry, I believe, I can give you yours out of turn. If anyone asks, that was me mastering the techniques required to install the system." Harry couldn't help by let out a chuckle at this.

"And can I maybe get some other upgrades for 'Claw while we're at it?" He asked.

"Well,.." 'Doctor' Chidori said. "While the installation of the Cartridge System will be paid for by the Bureau in full, the rest of the upgrades you might want to install will follow the standard schema of fifty-fifty." The young Potter nodded: he had expected as much. Seeing that, his mentor continued: "Well then, what do you have in mind?"

"How about something like this..." And then Harry proceeded to describe, with quite a few details, actually, what he wanted as the new and upgraded form of his device to the blond scientist.

"So..." She concluded. "You want to turn it into an armed device, more or less." Indeed, the upgrades for his Phoenix Claw that he had in mind would make fall outside of the classic 'Storage Device' class... Harry just shrugged in response. "Okay." Kyoko said. "I'm sure I can do that, though it will likely take me more than just a couple of days." She told him.

"Alright." The green-eyed teen said as he took his device off his hand and handed it over to his sensei, who then placed it onto her table – she won't start working on it right away, after all.

"I'll ring you up when I have it ready." She said.

"Thank you, sensei." The young Potter replied with a nod. The blond scientist hummed something not really intelligible under her breath in response.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, Harry?" She asked then.

"No, sensei." The green-eyed teen shook his head. "Actually I have to go do some work myself. I still haven't finished writing my report on the things that happened during my time aboard of warship "Arthra" for captain Steinmetz." He confessed.

"Will you tell me this story in full sometime?" Kyoko was curious. Harry had already given her an overview of what had happened during the Book of Darkness incident when he gave her a videocall on the day after Reinforce's and the Wolkenritter's trial, but a lot of details had obviously been omitted.

"Of course." Harry promised.

**~/ *** \~**

Harry's fourth day back to Mid-Childa and Cranagan began with inspecting the progress the workers Chrono had hired for him had made with renovating his apartment. Namely, they had finally finished putting the new bathroom, kitchen and living room together. And the young Potter had to admit: despite having to work undertime, they had done a fantastic job and everything was looking to-notch.

Thanking the men for the work they had already done and handing them Chrono-approved designs for the rest of the rooms, Harry returned to the TSAB administrative complex in order to grab a bite at the Magitek Research Department's mess. Once done with his lunch, he dropped by his room in the hostel, before heading to one of the many parks in Cranagan for his 'scheduled' meeting with Megane-sensei.

"Hello, sensei." He greeted when he finally located the lavender-haired summoner.

"_Hello there, Harry._" She replied telepathically. Apparently not to wake up little Lulu, who was sleeping peacefully in her arms. "_Quint-chan said, you've brought some souvenirs for me from you mission. I'm really flattered by this, of course, but you really didn't have to._" The green-eyed teen just shrugged in response to that, before pulling a decorated wooden box full of high-quality tea from his bag. That was more or the only thing he had come up with that would be alright to gift to Megane-sensei, especially since she had just become a mother.

"_And this is for Lu-chan._" Harry added as he produced an extremely cute small white plush of something that looked like a big-headed anthropomorphic cat. It was probably too early for such a toy to be even remotely interesting to Lutecia, but in a couple of years... Apparently, the lavender-haired knight was sharp-set for cute things herself, given her own reaction to the toy.

"_Oh thank you, Harry!_" She said once she finished gushing over the plush. "_I'm sure Lulu will totally love this one when she gets a little older!_" The green-eyed teen just smiled in response, before getting all serious again:

"_There is one more thing I have here... It's probably for you as well, sensei._" He said while fishing something quite small out of an inner pocket of his bag. Raising an eyebrow, Megane nonetheless accepted that mysterious object as well. Taking a quick look at what it was, the lavender-haired knight raised her eyebrow even further: this miniature piece of hardware was certainly something rather unexpected. And while she had a few question on how Harry had come to own it floating around in her head, she didn't ask any of them, accepting this 'gift' with a silent nod instead.

"_So... Quint-chan says that you've been sent to assist with containing the Book of Darkness? Is that true, did they really send you on such a mission?_" The pretty summoner asked next, changing the topic.

**~/ *** \~**

Another five days later the workers were finally done with the renovations for Harry's apartment. And once the said teen made sure that everything was in order, he called knights Signum and Zafira up, asking for some help with sprucing the place up... Even then it took the three of them a couple of hours to make everything in the apartment thoroughly clean.

And that wasn't the end of the day either: there still were various little – and not so little – household essentials that they needed to buy for their new home. And food, as until now they all had been having their meals at the messes all the time. Not to mention actually moving their things from their current lodgings... By the time all that was dealt with it was quite late in the evening, thus the tired trio decided to postpone the house-warming party until tomorrow.

* * *

Despite being quite tired out by the many troubles related to moving in into a new home, Signum had some troubles with drifting off to sleep... Actually, as a living magical program she didn't really _need_ sleep per se, but it nevertheless became something like a habit that she embraced during the time she spend under mistress Hayate's care on Earth. And staying at the place she was supposed to call her home without her mistress being anywhere close was probably what made dozing off so hard for the pink-haired knight... And somehow her finally falling asleep so late in the night resulted in her also waking up pretty late next morning.

No, Signum definitely didn't sleep in or anything, but by the time she woke up, both Harry and Zafira were up already and, judging by the aroma coming from the kitchen the breakfast was either almost ready or already in progress.

A quick shower later, the General or Raging Fire donned her Ground Forces uniform – which was surprisingly comfortable, barely losing there even to the casual clothes mistress Hayate had picked for her back on Earth – before joining her two housemates in the kitchen, where Zafira was wolfing down a plateful of pancakes with whatever jam he had laid his hands on, while Harry was eating in a more relaxed way... And seeing that he was still wearing an apron, it looked like he had been the one to cook today's breakfast.

Some might have found the green-eyed teen's ability to cook – and be pretty good at that – rather surprising, but Signum merely shrugged at that. The Wolkenritter, after all, despite being created as a combat unit, had picked up many other skills over the millenniums of their existence. And out of the four of them only Shamal was unable to cook anything without burning it or whatever. At least that was so until mistress Hayate started teaching her... Well, Vita might have some troubles as well, but those would stem entirely from her short statue and would have nothing to do with actual skill...

The breakfast passed in relative silence as despite being cohabitants now, the young Potter and the two knights were little more than strangers. The Time will of course fix that, but right now... Anyhow, once the meal was over and the dishes were done, it was the time for Harry and Signum to leave as they were expected to show up in their respective units today. Zafira, on the other hand, had a day off from teaching at the Fourth Ground Forces Academy and would likely remain at the apartment, doing whatever he did when he was alone.

* * *

By the time Harry returned home from his day of work, Zafira was already half done with preparing the festive dinner. And seeing how the guardian beast was currently the master of the kitchen, he decided to set up the videocalls instead: Chrono, Yuuno and Reinforce were still in the Infinite Library at the Bureau headquarters; Lindy and Fate were having the duty aboard of "Arthra"; while Nanoha, Hayate, Vita and Shamal all were in Uminari city – for all of them these videocalls would be the only way to participate in the house-warming party.

Harry also though about 'inviting' his three mentors to the party, but eventually decided against it: Kyoko-sensei was practically living in her laboratory at the moment with how much work on device upgrading her superiors were dumping on her; Quint-sensei was due to leave on a mission tomorrow morning and too was busy as it is; finally, Megane-sensei had little Lulu to care about, making it very hard for her attend any social events...

Before long, Signum joined them and, once Zafira was done with the dinner, the party began... Well, calling it a 'party' might be too much, but, at least, everyone that side of the space bridge wished them stable and prosperous household, mutual understand and many other things in the same vein.

Afterwards, everyone separated into two big groups: the one consisted of the Wolkenritter, Reinforce and their mistress with Fate-chan and Nanoha-chan occasionally butting in. They had been conversing among themselves and the young Potter, of course, hadn't really listened in. He still learned that Reinforce was mostly done at the Infinite Library and would be coming to Mid-Childa on the day after tomorrow. Harry, Yuuno and the two Harlaowns formed the other 'circle'. And their conversation quickly turned into Lindy offering many advices on resolving the issues that would arise among the cohabitants sooner or later – being a captain of a patrol warship, the teal-haired lady had a lot of practical experience in dealing with those...

In the end, even if the 'party' that night wasn't all great on the fun side of things, it was still good. Harry had learned a few things about conflict resolving and got his reassurance about sharing the house with the Wolkenritter. Maybe he won't come to ever regret his sudden decision to invite them to live under his roof... And the knights themselves? A chance to talk to their beloved mistress Hayate left them noticeably more relaxed. And (even) easier to cohabitate with.

**~/ *** \~**

Since both Signum and Zafira had the duties they couldn't beg themselves off that day, it was up to Harry to introduce Reinforce into the 'villain central' as someone had jokingly called his household. That, and he was more or less the landlord here, so he'd have to be there regardless.

And while he knew when the newest resident of his house will be arriving, actually waiting for it made the young Potter feel like the time had slowed down to a crawl. So to occupy himself with something while he waited, Harry began thinking about, well, magic. And among many spells and whatnot he had already seen, the familiars definitely stood out as something he probably should research. After all, being an owl, even if a magical one, Hedwig won't be there with him forever, yet he just couldn't imagine losing her either – she was probably his first friend. And only one from his old life that was with him in this new one.

Yes, he will definitely have to look into the ways of familiar creation. But before that, it would probably be a good idea to gain a little bit more knowledge about the ways his quite unique magic system worked. After all, unlike the spells he had been playing with so far, the familiar creation ritual was something that he couldn't just try and try again till he eventually got it right. And he'd rather not hurt Hedwig or worse just because he was too hasty and didn't adapt the ritual to his magic properly...

His further thoughts on the matter were interrupted by someone – Reinforce – ringing his doorbell. Getting to the door swiftly, Harry opened it. And paused. It looked like the red-eyed beauty decided to change her style quite a bit over the last two days: aside from donning on the Ground Forces brown uniform, Reinforce now had her long silver hair made into a thick braid, instead of just letting them flow freely behind her like she used to... And while she didn't have the most threatening appearance before, now she was all but the avatar of cuteness.

"Um..." Harry managed after a pretty long pause. "Come in, please." He said finally, feeling very awkward at how the words just kept failing him.

**~/ *** \~**

About a week after moving in into his apartment, Harry decided that it was about time for him to pick up his training. This, of course, included learning how to use the new form of his device effectively. And given what this new form was, Signum was an obvious choice for a teacher there. When asked, the pink-haired Knight of the Sword saw no reason to deny his request and agreed to give him a few lessons on fighting with bladed weapons.

Of course, the young Potter wasn't going to abandon his training in the unarmed combat either. But right now Quint was away on whatever mission her superiors had given her, thus forcing him to either wait for her return or find himself a new, if temporary, sensei. And Harry, not knowing how long it will be before his purple-haired teacher is back, decided to follow the second route... The Luck was on his side again and guardian beast Zafira also agreed to teach him for a little bit.

Finally, the green-eyed teen needed to do something about his '**Lesser Aegis**' shield being useless at shielding him from anything even resembling a decently-powerful magical attack. For now, though, he decided to try tackling this on by himself as he felt that he was already abusing the knights' kindness. Not to mention that Reinforce was busy enough as it is with her new work for the Bureau while also trying to create a safe-to-use on the battlefield simulacrum of the Tome. And if his eyes weren't deceiving him, the silver-haired beauty was also trying to find a way to permanently delete the corrupted Defense Program from the Tome without sacrificing herself in the process. No, he shouldn't be bothering her with his comparatively-petty problems...

* * *

By some chance, Zafira was the first one to find enough free time to give Harry a lesson. And, of course, this lesson began with a spar – the wolf-man needed to know what level his 'student' was at, after all... And even with his powers limited, the guardian beast had absolutely no troubles with trouncing the green-eyed teen, not that it was something entirely unexpected...

And while the young Potter recovered from their mock battle, Zafira questioned him a bit about the 'style' he had been using. Mostly because the knight just couldn't outright recognize it, despite having witnessed and fought against hundreds of those. Then again, what Harry was using was not a proper style anyway, just some moves based on the **Shooting Arts** that worked for him.

"Alright." The blue-furred wolf-man summed up. "You are pretty good for someone who had adopted the Mid-Childan combat philosophy of bombarding your enemy from a distance. Yet in a melee fight any proper Belkan knight will wipe the floor with you." Harry nodded: he didn't really intend to use marital arts as his main means of attacking anyway. And Zafira knew that as well. "That said, there are a lot of things that could be improved about the way you fight. For one, you barely use your feet when a good hit with those greaves of yours can be quite devastating."

The incident where Quint-sensei had actually bent the shield strapped to his left arm with a single kick immediately came to Harry's mind. Still, not really knowing what to say there – especially since he himself wasn't sure why he barely used his feet in combat – the green-eyed teen simply nodded. Meanwhile, Zafira continued:

"That, however, isn't as much of a problem as your other asymmetry. You attack almost exclusively with your right hand and guard with your left one. I can see why it is so, given the designs of your device and your barrier jacket, but, nevertheless, it makes you predictable and, thus, easy to counter." The wolf-man explained.

"I see..." The young Potter said a bit thoughtfully. Now that Zafira had brought this to his attention, it indeed looked like a major problem with his fighting 'style'. What's more, Quint-sensei had never turned his mind to this. No, she was an excellent fighter and a good teacher; it's just her style, the **Shooting Arts**, which was build around the idea of taking the target down with one powerful attack, didn't make the symmetry of one's form truly important.

"Well, if you want to improve, I can help you fix these problems." As Harry nodded, the guardian beast continued: "Well then, we shall concentrate on teaching you to fight more symmetrically for now." He said. "Today's exercise will the following: you will be allowed to block only with your right hand and strike only with the left one."

This exercise quickly proved to be much harder than it sounded. Not only it went against what by now could as well be a conditioned reflex for Harry, but Zafira wasn't holding back all that much either. And much like his build would suggest, he was freakishly-strong...

* * *

Two days later, it was the time for Harry's first lesson with Signum. And having only heard about it, the pink-haired swordswoman was understandably curious about the bladed upgrade of his device, something that even her stoic exterior couldn't really hide.

"Shall we begin?" The Knight of the Sword asked, while changing her trusty Laevatein from its standby form of an odd necklace into a battle-ready form of a single-edged western straight sword.

"Phoenix Claw, set up!" The young Potter commanded meanwhile, changing his device into its base form, which remained mostly the same even after the upgrade. Though, the gauntlet got a bit thicker as it now had a loader and a boxy magazine holding seven cartridges on the underside. "**Assault form!**" The green-eyed teen commanded next. This caused the gauntlet gain a two feet long two-pronged sword-like blade and a rather narrow shield extending to a few inches past the elbow on its upper side.

"Hm..." Signum hummed. "A wristblade. Can't say I have much experience with these..." After a pause that lasted but a single moment, she continued: "Blades like these are used mostly for direct thrusts, which are not that different from punches, so Zafira might actually be a better teacher for you here. However, yours is big enough to be rather effective at slashing as well. Which, along with parrying is what I can teach you." Harry nodded. That sounded like an important thing to learn if he were to use this form of his device in actual combat.

"Parrying first, I guess?" The green-eyed teen asked.

"Indeed." Signum agreed. Normally she'd add that parrying a blow with one's blade's sharp edge was a bad idea, but in this particular case there was no need to: the very design of Harry's wristblade ensured that it won't be a problem. "Shall we get started?" She 'asked' while taking her stance. Gulping slightly as he remembered his sink-or-swim lesson with guardian beast Zafira two days ago, the young Potter got ready to do his best to defend himself...

**~/ *** \~**

Once he got a little used to his lessons with the two Cloud Knights, Harry finally returned to his attempts to improve... well, to fix his magical shield. Unfortunately, those weren't going very well so far: it looked like no matter what changes he applied to the spell matrix, his magical shield just couldn't block neither Mid-Childan nor Belkan spells well enough to actually be called a shield.

Another problem was the fact that he needed someone to cast a spell at him in order to see whether the changes he had made to his shield had the desired, or any at all, effect – he had discovered long ago that his shield stopped his own spells well enough even when weaker ones from the 'standard' systems went right through it.

That said, the problems with testing the modifications he had done to his shield spell and the lack of improvements brought by modifications he had tested was understandably frustrating for the green-eyed teen. As was the fact that he now had to use more and more complex equations in hopes that one of them will give the desired result: all the simpler ones he could have thought of were already tested. And failed... And, of course, when working with those more complex mathematics, the number of errors Harry kept making wasn't exactly small either.

"Damn!.." The young Potter swore – hopefully not too loudly – when his latest attempt failed to even produce a magical shield at all. At least this failure made it clear that it was not the solution he was looking for... A knock on his room's door, which wasn't even closed, drew his attention. Turning around, Harry saw that it was Reinforce who stopped in by his room.

"Everything alright?" She asked softly.

"Yeah." The green-eyed teen replied. "Just some problems with my spellcrafting." There was a short pause, before the silver-haired beauty spoke again:

"Do you need my help with it?" She offered. "I'm sure there is a way to make your shield work the way you want it to." Harry wasn't sure whether she had actually seen what he was working on or merely guessed correctly based on what had been his greatest weakness during the battle against the corrupted Defense Program. Either way, she probably still had her hands full without helping him with his own problems... Yet, right now he had troubles with finding a way of telling her that he'll be alright without it coming out wrong. That was probably a sign that he should call it a day and get some rest...

"Don't worry about that. I'll tackle this problem eventually." He said finally. There was a second-long pause, before Reinforce nodded.

"Alright." She said. "But if you feel you need my help, don't hesitate to ask. I still owe you a lot for what you have done for my master, my knights and myself."

"Thank you." Harry replied.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	16. The Breakthrough

The sixteenth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**ultima-owner**, **FateBurn**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **Liazas**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Opinr**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Jose19**, **Impstar**, I've answered your reviews via PM.  
**fellow**, well, here you go, another scene depicting the events happening on Harry's home world.  
**serialkeller**, 8 actually. 9 if you count his mana cloak as spell. This is already more than, say, Agito has listed in her wikia entry (she has 7). Granted, out of those 8 or 9 only two are explicitly-offensive... This chapter, though, Harry expands his spell library by two new spells and I will have him learn three more in the next one.  
**celf**, I'm lazy, so I don't think I will draw Harry's device or its forms anytime soon. But, considering that in two arcs he will be gaining a second one, I probably should... Eh...

*** AN**: The Signum scene in this chapter had been inspired by a certain non-H doujinshi titled "Lyrical Lily".

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**c****hapter XVI: The Breakthrough**

Despite not having any success in improving his '**Lesser Aegis**' shield for the last two or so weeks, Harry still refused to ask Reinforce for some help, even if she herself had volunteered. Instead, he decided take a small break and work on something else in the meantime. On improving his magical offense, for example. After all, right now he only had two rather simplistic if powerful shooting spells and a binding one that, in theory, could be used offensively... If he didn't mind crippling or outright killing his target, that is.

Since he was currently working on improving his melee capabilities, the young Potter decided to try and create something similar to Signum's _**Shiden Issen**_, which imbued a blade with magic in order to increase its striking power. And at the same time, it also allowed the otherwise quite deadly blade to become a stun-only weapon. Which was very useful, considering the Bureau's policies...

What Harry didn't particularly like about the original _**Shiden Issen**_ was the fact that it expired after the first hit delivered. For his own version, he wanted something that could last quite a bit longer, even if at the cost of somewhat reduced power. And overall mana cost, of course. Not that the latter was a big problem for him, thanks to the Lost Logia stuck in his chest and providing him with as much magical energy as his body could handle.

As the green-eyed teen had quickly discovered through some experimenting, producing a solid mana construct over a physical object was actually not that different from creating a protective mana cloak around his body. And since his wristblade was simple in design and was always the same, programming the device to automatically control the mana flow around it was feasible. Adding a spell matrix to this mana construct so that it would both function as a blade and deal no physical damage to living things was a bit more difficult, but before long Harry managed to make it work.

What's more, he somehow accomplished all that without the knights finding out what he had been working on. Thus, Signum was quite surprised and impressed when he first used this new spell of his, tentatively dubbed **Hardlight Blade**, against her in a combat simulation. Not that it had really helped him any... Even with her limiters on, Signum still was a battle-hardened warrior with hundreds years of experience; and a pretty trick like that was far from enough to overcome her.

All things considered, Harry regarded his **Hardlight Blade** spell as a major success. Especially since it was the first working spell he had created from scratch: everything else in his arsenal was nothing more than adaptations of preexisting spells to his unique magic system.

This accomplishment was also all that he needed in order to get a second wind when it came to his works on upgrading and improving his magical shield. After all, if he could successfully craft a new spell with a desired effect, he should also be able to properly modify a spell he already knew, right? Well, he definitely hoped so...

**~/ *** \~**

Tom Marvolo Riddle, better known as lord Voldemort exhaled in slowly-seething anger yet again. It looked like almost nothing was going according to his plans these days... Actually, the only thing that went just as he had planned was his own resurrection itself: even the fact that he had used the old fool Dumbledore's blood seemed to matter not. Alas, the aforementioned old fool didn't die from the cursed wound Crouch Jr. had inflicted on him. And, what's more, the goat-fucker also guessed correctly why his blood had been taken. Thus, his Order of the Burned Chicken was now assembled and ready to act.

As was the Ministry. Somehow, Dumbledore managed to convince that babbling fool of the Minister that the Auror corps needed to be alert and not even generous 'donations' made by Lucius seemed to be able to change Fudge's mind. And given that it was madam Bones who was in charge of the Auror corps, the Ministry now effectively had an army; an army that was prepared to fight off his Death Eaters, with lethal force if needed, should he try to use them in open.

And 'correcting' the situation through a series of assassinations wasn't all that easy either. Everyone seemed to hiding behind the most impressive wards they could afford, and in many cases even trying to breach those was out of question as it would require an all-out siege. Which was something he couldn't afford at the moment.

No, Voldemort decided, no matter how much he hated this idleness, right now pretending that he was still dead was the best course of action: before long the Ministry will be forced to sound the retreat and abolish the current war-time policies for the Aurors. Likewise, sooner or later those fools on the side of Light will relax, believing that it all was a false alarm. And that will be when he will strike, taking them all by surprise, and conquer the Great Britain!

And then there was that other thorn in his side: Harry Potter, the boy spoken about it that cursed prophecy. While Voldemort really doubted that the brat had some arcane powers capable of bringing him down, he still needed to be killed. Just in case. Even if according to some reports he now was but a powerless squib... Unfortunately, the cursed Potter spawn seemed to have disappeared from the face of the Earth over a year and a half ago and, according to Severus, not even that old fool Dumbledore had a single idea where the brat was. But it was not like the Potter boy could hide forever. Sooner or later he will be forced to reveal himself. And that will be when he will die. By his hand, of course.

Yes, patience was a virtue, Voldemort thought. Only brainless Gryffindors would charge forward without even a littlest bit of planning. A true Slytherin like him, on the other hand, will trim the sails to the wind and strike his enemies when they are not ready for it.

**~/ *** \~**

Today was the day when Shamal, Vita and Hayate were supposed to arrive to Mid-Childa. Alas, today was also when a major inspection of the Ground Forces' garrison in Cranagan took place, meaning that Harry was forced to remain with his unit far into the evening. Reinforce and Zafira, who were members of the Ground Forces as well, were in the same boat... Which was such a shame as it would have been much better if it wasn't just Signum, but all of them, who welcomed those three into their 'nest'...

Anyhow, the workday was over now, and after braving through the evening traffic – much like it was the case with any other megalopolis, Cranagan's streets suffered from overcrowding at certain hours – the young Potter was finally standing in front of his apartment's door.

"I'm home!" He called as he stepped inside. His response came in the form of a teasing laughter that sounded like Vita's. Curious as to what was going on, Harry quickly removed his shoes and slipped towards the living room. What he saw in there made him pause.

The miniature knight was running around the room with a camera in her hands, all the while laughing like a kid who had just pulled a major prank on someone. The target of the said prank turned out to be a 'schoolgirl' with twin tails holding an unsheathed sword, who stood in the center of the room with her back to Harry. And even though he couldn't see her face, it was clear that she was greatly annoyed by the redhead's antics... Hayate and Shamal, meanwhile, were both watching the unfolding events from the sofa with tender emotion.

It was a few seconds before a realization dawned upon the green-eyed teen: this 'schoolgirl' had long pink hair of a shade that he had seen on just one person; and the sword in her hands was the one and only Laevatein. And then there were her clothes...

"Signum?" He asked, still surprised by how a simple change of a hairstyle made her look so different. The General of Raging Fire turned around, surprising Harry with how youthful – and cute! Yes, cute – the twin tails made her. And as if to completely shatter her image of a stoic warrior, a traitorous blush made its way onto Signum's face. "U-uh..." He breathed out, completely unable to come up with anything more intelligible at the moment. The pink-haired knight meanwhile was silently sending a glare his way, making it clear that asking any questions about what was going on might not be the wisest thing for him to do.

"Welcome back." She finally greeted after a pretty long pause during which she had tried her best to recompose herself. And her greeting was almost like a wake-up call to Hayate and the other two knights, who until now were merely watching the scene in front of them unfold.

"Hello, Harry-kun." The Queen of the Night Sky called from her seat on the sofa, while Shamal, who had been hugging her from behind, greeted him with a nod.

"So, you're the guy we will be living with, huh?" The red-haired knight of the hammer asked while folding her hands in front of her chest. A moment later she got smacked by Hayate's paper fan on top of her head. "Ouch!" She cried out.

"Don't be such a grumpy bear, Vita-chan." Her mistress chided her, making her yield and mumble something resembling a greeting under her breath... There was another pretty long pause, which was eventually broken by Harry:

"Um... Shall I start the dinner?" He asked. His answer was a round of unsure nods, indicating that Hayate and three of her knights weren't averse to the idea.

"Do you need any help, Harry-kun?" Hayate asked then. The green-eyed teen waved his hand dismissively in response as he told her that she was a guest in his house and that it was alright for her to just sit back and relax. That said, he disappeared towards his room so that he could change out of his Ground Forces uniform and into something more casual and homey...

* * *

Before long, Reinforce and Zafira had returned home, whereupon they were immediately intercepted by their ever-energetic mistress, who wanted to know everything about their life here on Mid-Childa. And while Hayate was busy 'interrogating' those two, Signum had remade her hair back into her usual samurai ponytail – something that her mistress didn't look particularly happy about, even if she didn't comment on it.

The dinner passed rather uneventfully, though the green-eyed teen had to admit that with everyone gathered in there, the normally quite spacious kitchen which doubled as the dining room suddenly felt a little bit crowded. Not that he really minded it: this somehow created an illusion that he was living with a true family and he was actually a part of it...

And once the meal was over retired to the living room. There, Hayate moved to sit in Reinforce's lap, obviously wishing to spend as much time with her as she could in this couple of days she got to spend on Mid-Childa. The Wolkenritter arranged themselves around them with Shamal and Signum taking seats to their left and right and Zafira in his wolf form laying down at their feet. And Vita, temporarily forgetting about her strained relations with the silver-haired avatar of the Tome, sat down between Signum and Reinforce while resting her head in Hayate's lap. The miniature knight even allowed her mistress to pet her on the head.

"How do the matters stand back on Earth?" Harry asked, starting some small talk. Hayate gained a thoughtful look for a few moments, before giving him an answer:

"Well, I've decided to pass my schooling as an external student, so that I can be free as soon as possible. And then I'll move here and become the best commander I can be for my knights!" The brown-haired girl proclaimed with determination burning in her eyes, making everyone, even ever-stoic Signum smile. Meanwhile, the little Queen of the Night Sky continued: "Nanoha-chan said she wanted to become an external student too, but Lindy-san shot that idea down; she said it will put her under too much stress as she is already working as a part-timer for the Bureau."

"Oh." Harry breathed out. Well, he thought, there had never been any doubt that Takamachi-san would eventually join the TSAB: she was too fascinated with magic and magical combat to follow any other route. Still, he hadn't expected her to officially enlist herself so soon.

"And together with Fate-chan she even gave a few lessons in magic to Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan." Hayate continued. Now this was interesting... From what the green-eyed teen remembered about those two girls, they didn't have Linker Cores powerful enough to let them use any spells that are above the parlor tricks level... On the other hand, those lessons were a good way for the girls to re-establish some connections with Nanoha and Fate that got severed due to the latter pair being mages that were working for the Bureau, often off the planet.

"We've been giving our mistress some lessons as well." Shamal added.

"Can't say we've had much success, though." The Queen of the Night Sky said with a cute pout making its way on her face. "My control over my magic is atrocious and so any spell I try tends to be so greatly overpowered..." She elaborated.

"I'm afraid, master, there will be no easy fixing to that." Reinforce said after a short pause. "And, I think, I'm kind of the root of your problems here."

"What do you mean?" Vita hissed as she raised her head off Hayate's lap to glare at the silver-haired avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky. It didn't seem to really work, though.

"First of all, the Tome had bound itself to Master when she was too young and her Linker Core was simply not ready to support it properly. This must have caused some complications with its further development." Reinforce explained. "And then, upon the Tome's completion, the mana drain stopped entirely while large amounts of raw power were simultaneously bestowed upon Master. This resulted in a situation where the smallest amount of mana she can control without external help is comparable to the cost of double-A-ranked spells." She said as she gently hugged Hayate to her chest. "And since neither the Schwertkreuz battle staff nor the Tome itself have any instruments for mana management, with my unison abilities sealed away as a part of my sentence, Master will have no shortcuts to gaining proper control over her vast powers."

"I see..." The brown-haired girl replied in a tone saying that she had actually been expecting to hear something like this. Then again, it was almost impossible to gain incredible powers that didn't come some sort of a drawback... The room then fell into a silence as no one was sure what to say next.

"Hm,.. Hayate-chan,.." Harry finally broke this silence. "You've said that Nanoha-chan is now working for the Bureau part-time, right? Do you know which branch she had joined?"

"She's officially listed as a part of "Arthra"'s crew right now, just like Fate-chan." The brunette replied, before gaining a thoughtful look. After a second, she added: "But, I don't think she will remain there forever... Nanoha-chan really likes flying."

"Heh, that does sound like her." The young Potter said with a chuckle. "I guess we will be seeing her in Air Forces' white uniform soon. It will definitely look good on her."

"And Fate-chan absolutely has to become an enforcer." Hayate added mischievously. "Then, they will be like a prince and a princess." This comment made an image of adult Fate in a black suit hand in hand with Nanoha in a frilly white dress appear in Harry's mind. And, judging by the reactions of the knights, he wasn't the only one to imagine something like that...

This also finally and completely destroyed the gloomy mood that had been created by the brief discussion of Hayate's problems with magic, thus allowing everyone to once again immerse themselves in a conversation with more lighthearted topics...

**~/ *** \~**

A couple of days after Hayate with Signum and Zafira as her guards departed for the non-administered world 97, Harry finally went back to attempting to fix his shielding spell. Unfortunately, so far he wasn't having much success with this, even if he did stumble across a couple of minor improvement... For whatever reason, his shield consistently refused to block any spells that didn't come from under his own magic system. And it was frustrating for the green-eyed teen to no end.

It soon actually got to the point where he finally decided to set his pride aside and take Reinforce up on her offer. Thankfully for him, the silver-haired beauty was still willing to lend him a helping hand and aid him with his spell-crafting. Though, seeing as how his magic system was quite different from both Mid-Childan and Belkan ones, the first few evenings Harry spent on teaching Reinforce about the kinks of the mathematical equations that governed it.

And even while she was still learning about his magic, the red-eyed beauty was already able to notice a few possible ways to improve his already-existing spells. Including the one that might let his shooting spells fire homing bullets! Though, since right now their main objective was improving Harry's **Lesser Aegis** shield, those were left unexplored. For now.

Unfortunately, it looked like even Reinforce, despite all her magical knowledge and millenniums of experience, had some problems with finding a way to enhance the apparently-cursed shielding spell – the damn thing absolutely refused to work against the more conventional offensive spells properly, despite the many attempts to make it to made up to now... And then, after roughly a week and a half of many failed attempts, the silver-haired beauty finally announced it to Harry that she might have found a solution to the problem.

In short, her idea was not to give the original shield some additional properties, but instead to layer it with another shield that worked against Mid-Childan and Belkan spells. This would result in a magical construction that, while requiring some extra computations due to being essentially two shields merged together, would work equally well against both physical and magical attacks. And Reinforce had actually made a few sketches of the shields under Harry's magical system that might be able to block spells of Mid-Childan and Belkan systems. Furthermore, she had also outlined a few possible ways to turn this new and improved shield of his into a protective barrier that could be created over some location instead of around the caster.

Thanking the silver-haired beauty greatly for the amazing job she had done, the young Potter went on to finally complete the upgrade of his **Lesser Aegis**. And thanks to all the results and ideas she had provided him with, it took Harry just a few days to finally create a proper shield. The end result of his work was a bit too cumbersome to be quickly cast without the device's assistance, but at very least it was able to block all of the Ancient Belkan shooting spells that Shamal threw at it.

And since the green-eyed teen didn't feel really creative about naming his new shielding spell, he simply called it **Greater Aegis**. Then again, it wasn't such a bad name... Anyhow, with his magical shield finally working as it should be, Harry began testing Reinforce's ideas for his shooting spells: the possibility of giving their bullets some homing capabilities was too good to be left unexplored!..

** ~/ *** \~**

"My god, Harry, what have you been doing while I dallied on my missions?" Quint asked as they both recovered after their spar. No, the purple-haired knight still won today, of course, but this time around she had to actually work for this victory. And on one occasion, when Harry had greatly surprised her by bashing her with his shield – a very useful trick he had picked from guardian beast Zafira – only her cat-like reflexes and years of experience had saved her from actual defeat.

And the less was said about 'doctor' Chidori's performance, whom Harry had roped into playing the role of Quint's support, the better. Her barely lasting five minutes into the spar was a proof enough that she was a far better researcher and Device Meister than she was a combat mage.

"I've just found a few good friends among the true Ancient Belkan knights." The young Potter replied with a shrug, before wincing in pain as his body reminded him about that glancing hit he had taken from one of the Quint's attacks. It was likely just a bruise, but he should see Shamal when he returned home regardless.

"Mou... Are you replacing me, Harry-chan?" The purple-haired knight asked with a pout and some fake tears in the corners of her eyes. Apparently, her talents as an actress were no worse than her skills as an investigator and a fighter.

"Of course not, sensei!" He replied quickly, before pausing as he tried to come up with a way to 'justify' taking some lessons from the Wolkenritter without digging his metaphorical grave any deeper.

"On a more serious note." Kyoko interjected. "Based on what I have seen today, I believe that you are quite ready for a double-A rank, Harry." And if it wasn't for the ritual and ceremonial magic being a part of the triple-A rank examination, the green-eyed teen stood a good chance of passing that one as well. That requirement was actually the only reason why Quint was just a double-A rank herself... On the second thought, it was possible that he will be allowed to skip that part of the exam since he was a user of a unique and never-seen-before magic system.

"I'll agree with that." The purple-haired beauty said. "Our spar today showed that with all the progress you have made in the past few months, you are ready to go a rank up."

"Thank you." Harry said. "But there are a few things that I should finish before I will believe myself ready for the exam." Indeed, while he was able to hold his ground against Quint-sensei rather well today, many of his spells weren't properly optimized after their upgrades yet.

"Of course, of course." Kyoko-sensei said as she waved her hands dismissively. "Take your time to prepare."

**~/ *** \~**

Unlike the Mage Rank Examinations Harry had seen of taken so far, the triple-A rank one was much more complex and consisted of several portions, meant to test his knowledge of magical theory, history and laws of administered worlds as well as his combat abilities in various combat situations. There also normally was a portion dedicated to ceremonial and ritual magic, but in a somewhat controversial decision by the board of the examiners he got exempt from it because there were no such spells within his magic system.

And having successfully passed the written tests yesterday, Harry was going to take a 'practical' portion of the examination today. With one on one combat simulation being scheduled as his first test for the day, the green-eyed teen found himself heading to one of the many training grounds of the Fourth Ground Forces Academy. Alas, he wasn't the first one to arrive and his proctor was already there. And, much to Harry's surprise, it was someone he was quite familiar with.

"Good morning, major!" He greeted with a salute as he approached major Corrado. "It must be some kind of fate..." He commented then, getting a chuckle out of head instructor from the Aerial Tactical Instructor Corps.

"Maybe, sergeant Potter, maybe." She replied lightheartedly. Then, becoming serious, she continued: "We will be testing your personal skills and abilities right now. Should you pass this test, you will be given half an hour to rest, before we move on to the team combat test. Since you don't have a partner or a familiar, senior instructor Kenworth from Fourth Academy will play that role." Harry nodded. While he had never met the man, he really doubted that he would end up partnered with someone who was not up for the challenge. "Winning either of the combat simulations is not required to pass the test, but you need to show me that you are good enough to deserve the rank you are trying for." Major explained. "Any questions?" Harry shook his head.

"No, ma'am."

"Well then." Instructor Corrado continued, while summoning a holographic display with clock on it. "We have three minutes before your test begins, so get ready. I'm not going to go easy on you this time." She warned, prompting Harry to activate his device, summon his barrier jacket and slip into a battle-ready stance guardian beast Zafira had more or less hammered into him during their 'lessons'...

This time around major was taking the combat simulation seriously and so she too activated her device – a simple staff of a design that had been popular like forty years ago – and switched her uniform for her uniform-look-alike barrier jacket.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	17. Partners

The seventeenth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**Remilia - The Scarlet Moon**, **Impstar**, **jgkitarel**, I've answered your reviews via PMs.  
**Ranmaleopard**, **aznxa21**, **celf**, **FateBurn**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **ultima-owner**, **Jose19**, **raynisia**, **Penny is wise**, **karthik9**, **god of all**, **Opinr**, **Guest**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**moon so bright**, because the Bureau adopted the "thou shalt not kill" policy? No, if needs it, Harry can turn this spell into a magical lightsaber, but...  
**art9000**, at the moment - yes. It will see its use soon enough (for us, not by the story timeline), however.  
**Lerris**, and how often does he visit Hayate's Earth? So far, he had been there only once, during the Book of Darkness incident. And I highly doubt that back then he had gotten an idea of attempting to jump back to his own Earth. Plus, even if he did, actually doing that would be an absence without official leave, which is serious offense in any military. TSAB included. As for sending letters? There will be no way he can receive any answers anyway as the observation/investigatory ships that pass it by don't stop there at all.

*** AN**: Alright, folks, I for one need your help. Since Eins is still alive in this story, Zwei (who will still exist) can't really be called Reinforce. Thus, she needs a new name. So far I myself came up with three variants:  
\- Skathi (In Old Norse mythology Skaði is a huntress-goddess one of whose domains is "winter")  
\- Chione / Khione / Kione (after the minor Greek goddess of snow)  
\- Caily (shortened and 'pet' version of Cailleach Bheur, Scot goddess of winter)  
You can also offer your own ideas, though it will probably be better if those somehow reference Zwei's role of a frontline support or her elemental powers over ice.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XVII: Partners**

Even though Harry had nearly failed the practical portion his examination thanks to major Corrado's nigh supernatural ability to make absolutely anyone look like a complete amateur, he still was promoted into a triple-A rank aerial mage. And to thank everyone who had been helping him achieve this success, the young Potter had thrown quite a party for all of his mentors.

Megane-sensei was the only one who couldn't come, and that was only because of little Lutecia being a bit under the weather that day. Harry resolved to thank the lavender-haired summoner generously for the effort she had put into helping him grow stronger sometime later.

Reinforce had quickly found herself a company in Kyoko-sensei as the two of them got engaged in a discussion of the technologies behind various types of devices. In particular, the silver-haired avatar of the Tome was trying to determine, what was required for the creation a Unison device: despite being one herself, she knew not how she had been made. And the reason for this interest, of course, was her mistress, Hayate – the little Queen of the Night Sky needed a some sort of a crutch to help her control her magic as without one she wouldn't really be able to use any of the spells that required any degree of finesse from the caster...

Meanwhile, Quint-sensei, supported by her two daughters, and Zafira found themselves engaged in the ages-old debate of which martial arts style was the best one. Thankfully, they were quite level-headed about it... Not that it prevented the adults from making bets and, eventually, taking it to the nearest training grounds so that they could resolve their argument via a friendly spar.

This spar quickly showed why the Wolkenritter had the reputation of some of the mightiest warriors in the entire history of magic. Quint might be a powerful knight, but there wasn't much she could do against the overwhelming experience and skill of the guardian beast... And while Zafira had been relying solely on Strike arts in this spar, it still made Harry wonder just how powerful Fate's familiar, Arf, was as she supposedly had been able to fight him on equal terms.

**~/ *** \~**

Since he was now officially a triple-A ranked mage, the Bureau higher-ups decided that Harry's potential would be wasted if he continued to be a simple grunt in the Cranagan's garrison. Thus, he was presented with a few alternatives for his future. He could enroll into some military academy and subsequently become a lieutenant with a random company under his command. Or he could join the Rescue Crops. Or the Training Corps. His final 'alternative' was to join the Investigator Training Program and become an investigator. Well, a special investigator since his parseltongue was classified as a Rare Skill... Technically, he could choose to remain where he was, but...

Since Harry didn't believe himself to be a good teacher material, especially given how little combat experience he had and how different his magic was, Training Corps were out. And with his magic being almost entirely combat-oriented, he wouldn't make a good rescuer either. This narrowed his options down to becoming either a junior commissioned officer or an investigator. And if he had to choose between those two paths, the latter one appealed to him a little bit more. Probably because two of mentor were investigators themselves.

With his decision made, the young Potter was finally left in peace, at least until the next batch of mages actually joined the Investigator Training Program up in about a month. Meanwhile, he decided to slack off a bit – he won't have much time to himself once his investigator training began after all. That, of course, didn't mean that he wasn't doing anything at all.

Having asked Reinforce to share the ritual formulas she had absorbed from Fate with him, Harry began researching the ways of turning Hedwig into his familiar. Unfortunately for the green-eyed teen, this ritual – as well as its Ancient Belkan analogue – relied heavily on the quirks of the magical system it existed under, making the task of translating even more difficult than it would otherwise be. And since this was not a simple spell that he could just try until he got it right, the young Potter was in for many long hours of adapting the ritual to his own magical system. But giving the new, better, life to Hedwig was well worth the efforts he will have to put into this.

**~/ *** \~**

The month passed and now it was the time for Harry to hand in his application into the Investigator Training Program's admission board. Of course, he wasn't the only one trying to enter the program, but one couldn't say that there was a big crowd of applicants either. Quite understandable, actually, since in order to be eligible, one had to be in line with quite a list of requirements. Or have a recommendatory letter from a senior commissioned officer.

"Fate-chan?" He asked, not quite believing that the familiar blond girl was there in the crowd. His call made her to turn around and stare at him for a few moments.

"Oh..." After a second of silence, she greeted him: "Hello, Harry-kun. Sorry, I haven't noticed you there." The young Potter waved his hand dismissively.

"Nah, I just got there myself." He said. Then, after a small pause, he continued: "So... You want to become an investigator too?" He asked, getting a determined nod from the blond girl in response.

"Yeah, this will be the first step towards becoming an enforcer for me." Harry chuckled quietly as he recalled those jokes he and Hayate-chan had made about Fate-chan needing to reach the position of an enforcer to become an even better prince for the pretty princess Nanoha-chan...

"But what about your ...circumstances?" He asked then, recalling that those on probation or serving their mandatory service couldn't enroll into the Investigator Training Program.

"Uh..." She breathed out. "You remember Lindy-san saying that the duration of my mandatory service will be reduced because I had helped with resolving the Book of Darkness incident?" Harry nodded. Meanwhile, Fate-chan continued: "Well... My probation finally ended two weeks ago, so I'm free to go anywhere I want right now."

"Congratulation then." He said. Fate just smiled in response. Their further dialogue was interrupted for a few moments when a first lieutenant managing the crowd of investigator applicants called for 'Fate Testarossa-Harlaown'. Raising an eyebrow, Harry telepathically asked her about this.

"_Ah, yes, the paperwork was finally processed two months ago. Lindy-san is now my adoptive mother. Didn't Hayate-chan inform you about this the last time she visited? I mean, she stops by your 'villain central' whenever she is here, on Mid-Childa..._" The red-eyed blonde replied, while handing her papers over to the admission board.

"_No, she didn't._" The green-eyed teen said. "_Congratulation on that too, Fate-chan._"

"_Thanks._" She replied. Then, as she was guided out of the hall, she added: "_Guess, we will catch up later, Harry-kun._" And that was when Harry himself was requested to hand his application and other documents in.

Once the captain chairing the admission board had confirmed that everything was in order, Harry was sent out of the main hall and into one of the many small classrooms. In that classroom, only one desk remained, and sitting on that desk, there was a damn long written test waiting for him. And to make sure that he won't be cheating or anything like that, the room was constantly monitored by a couple of observation spheres.

Sighing as he wasn't exactly fond of such tests, the young Potter took a seat at the desk and got to work: he needed to answer as many questions as possible within the two hours he was given. And unlike how it had been during his triple-A rank Mage Rank Examination, the questions here weren't separated into thematic blocks. Nor were all of those questions examining his knowledge: quite a few questions were logic puzzles and tested his ability to think instead. Quite understandable, given what the investigators were doing most of the time – solving crimes.

* * *

Two hours later, Harry was all but dragged out of the classroom and guided into a cafeteria, where he was supposed to stay for the next hour or so, while the commission was evaluating everyone's tests. He, of course, used this time to catch up with Fate: apparently, quite a few things had happened around her in the past months that he was not aware of. And, likewise, the blond girl listened with interest to his stories about his own 'adventures' that took place after he had returned to Mid-Childa.

With the two of them engaged in a conversation, both Harry and Fate were caught by surprise with how quickly the time flew. It felt like they had just started talked a few minutes ago, yet an hour had already passed, and an officer was already announcing the results of everyone's written tests. They both passed, of course. However the same couldn't be said about everyone else: out of twenty seven applicants, five managed to fail this examination and were not allowed to continue onto the next one. The remaining twenty two, Harry and Fate included, were herded together and guided out of the building through the back door. There, they boarded a bus that had been waiting for them...

A twenty minutes long ride later, they found themselves arriving to one of those special adjustable training grounds that existed on the artificial islands in the coastal district of Cranagan. And once all of the investigator applicants got out, they were guided into the center of the training grounds, where a group of investigators and enforcer had been waiting for them in a neat row. One of those men actually was captain Grangaitz, much to the young Potter's surprise.

No, it was perfectly understandable, why a highly-experienced S-ranked knight would be asked to test the combat abilities of the youth. Harry was just surprised that Zest had actually agreed to this – as far as he could tell, captain Grangaitz was not the most social person, so he might be a bit out of his element at such a gathering. Nevertheless, when their eyes met, the two of them exchanged curt nods of a greeting, before going back to pretending that they were complete strangers.

This didn't go unnoticed by Fate, who was quick to ask Harry about it. Thankfully, via telepathy, as the chairman of the admission board was currently giving a speech about why it was important for the investigators to be highly-capable mages or knights. The young Potter meanwhile explained it to his red-eyed friend – also telepathically – that captain Grangaitz was the superior to the two of his mentors and probably one of the strongest men he had met within the Bureau.

"...And so to finally become and investigator cadet, you need to prove us that your skills are as sharp as your mind." The chairman said. "Major Orlo will explain you the task." With those words, he passed the microphone to a rather plain man in early fifties, who had been standing right next to him.

"Alright." Major Orlo said. "Before this test begins, each of you will be given a ribbon that you will wear pinned somewhere in full view. To pass this test, you will need to obtain a second ribbon from one of your proctors and reach the exit from these training grounds within one hour. Losing your ribbon to the proctors is possible, but will not automatically make you fail the test." There was a small pause, before he continued: "And one more thing: attacking your fellow examinees for _any_ reason, will cause immediate disqualification. Any questions?" Someone raised a hand.

"Does this mean that eighteen of us can pass this examination?" There were seven proctors, each with two ribbons pinned to the front of their barrier jacket or knight's armor. That made fourteen ribbons in the initial pool with more to be added to it as the proctors defeated the less skillful examinees.

"In ideal conditions, yes." Major Orlo replied. "But never on my memory something like that had happened. The highest pass rate we've ever had on this test was sixty eight percent." The one who asked the question nodded, satisfied with the answer he got. "Any other questions?" There were none. "Alright then, let's set the stage." As soon as those words left the man's mouth, the training grounds were magically changed into a ruined city, not unlike the one that had been the environment for Harry's B-rank examination. This change was also the signal for the proctors to scatter across the area. Finding them in these urban ruins was also a part of this test.

"_Shall we team up?_" Harry asked his friend telepathically: it looked like all of their proctors were S-ranked mages and knights. Teamwork appeared to be a good way to improve their chances of successfully getting the ribbons and passing this test. Fate nodded, agreeing with his 'plan'.

* * *

Since the proctors weren't hiding from the examinees for real, it took Harry and Fate only six or seven minute to find one – a red-haired enforcer in his late twenties wielding a jezl-like intelligent device. And the man of course still had both of 'his' ribbons pinned to the chest-piece of his barrier jacket.

"I don't think we can just ask you hand those ribbons over to us?" The young Potter asked, drawing the enforcer's attention, while Fate-chan began slowly circling around the yard where the proctor was standing to get into a more advantageous position... It was likely that the man was quite aware of what they were trying to do here, but he let them do it regardless.

"No, you have to take them form me through combat." The enforcer replied. "This is the first time someone tried this approach with me, though – usually they attack straight away." He added then.

"Well then..." The green-eyed teen said with a small sigh while summoning a dozen of magical bullets, before sending them towards the enforcer, hoping that this will keep the red-haired man's attention away from Fate who was preparing to attack him from his blind spot. "**Starfall Shooter!**" Not waiting for this barrage to reach its target, the young Potter already fired the second one, aiming at the spots he predicted the proctor would dodge to.

Of course, the man still evaded every single magical bullet sent his way, while simultaneously replying with a barrage of his own. Raising his **Greater Aegis** shield to protect himself, Harry immediately began preparing a counterattack in the form of two significantly more powerful 'bullets'. This seemed to surprise the enforcer a tiny little bit: the ability to attack and defend oneself at the same time was not very common among the run of the mill mages... Not that it somehow prevented him from dodging these shots as well.

It didn't matter however, as Fate was now standing on the second floor balcony of a half-demolished building maybe a dozen meters behind the proctor's back with Bardiche in its Haken form at the ready. Wasting no time, the blonde attacked, aiming to end this battle with a single strike. Alas, this didn't work as planned: the enforcer had sensed the incoming attack and leaded out of its way, while simultaneously grabbing the red-eyed girl's device by its handle. A moment later Fate was thrown onto the ground hard enough to raise a small cloud of dust.

"Gah!" Fate cried out in pain. But the proctor paid it no mind as he moved to collect the ribbon off her barrier jacket. The young Potter, though, wasn't going to let him do that.

"**Whips of Light!**" He called, making a number of cords made from solidified mana wrap themselves around the man's body, making it impossible for him to move. For a single moment the world seemed to freeze. Then, conquering her pain, the blond beauty raised her hand, pointing it at the enforcer.

"**Plasma Lancer!**" Considering the distance – and the fact that he was still bound – it looked like the red-haired man won't be able to escape this attack. Yet, he somehow did: the golden projectiles passed right through him, while the binds fell apart, no longer having anything to support them in midair.

"Not bad." The proctor commented as he appeared a few feet away from his 'previous' location. "You made me use my Rare Skill, even if only because I've made a mistake of seriously underestimating you two." So that is how he escaped that last attack, Harry noted. But did that mean, he could ghost trough magic? How could they even get those damn ribbons from someone with such an ability? On the second thought, it looked like this Rare Skill required some time to activate, otherwise the **Whips of Light** wouldn't have kept him bound for as long as they did. If so, maybe, if they managed to catch him off guard, they would be able to take the ribbons... Meanwhile, the enforcer continued: "If can manage this one more time, I will..."

"**Starfall Shooter!**" Not letting the man finish whatever he was trying to say – talking was not a free action on the battlefield! – the green-eyed teen attacked him again. And even if the proctor was caught by surprise a little bit with this, he evaded the spell completely anyway. At least this managed to push him further away from Fate, who was still recovering from her rough landing: sacrificing defense for speed was only good if your enemy could not keep up with you.

"...As I was trying to say, before I was interrupted." He continued nonchalantly. "If you can force me to use my **Ghost Step** one more time, I will let you have the ribbons." Harry and Fate exchanged a glance: passing this test just became feasible. Still hard, of course, but no longer impossible... And then the enforcer decided that he should up the challenge a little and rose into the air. Accepting the challenge, the two youths joined him up there.

They were immediately forced to raise their shields as their proctor sent a barrage of rather powerful magical bullets towards them. Then, he began adding more and more power to his attack. Thankfully, both Harry and Fate were quite powerful mages and their shields could keep them safe for now. But remaining on defensive here was not something that could grant them a victory in this scenario. So, to break the status quo, the green-eyed teen fired a number of his own magical bullets, forcing their proctor to ease his attack on them as he was busied with dodging.

A few more seconds later, the exchange of the magical projectiles finally died down, giving the two youth a much-needed breather and the time to come up with their next plan. And while the red-haired enforcer testing them could listen in on their telepathic conversation, he didn't: it wouldn't be half as fun if he knew what exactly they will try next...

"'Claw, Assault Form!" Harry called, bringing out wristblade. "Cartridge load! **Hardlight Blade!**" Then he charged right at the enforcer, which made him raise an eyebrow at this sudden abandonment of tactics in favor of a straightforward assault.

"What are you try to accomplish with this?" He asked as he effortlessly leaned out of the attack's path. "Your friend is much faster, yet even she couldn't touch me like this..."

"This!" The young Potter replied. "**Whips of Light!**" Using his own body as the surface to project the binding spell from was one of his more crazier idea, but it worked before during his spars with Zafira and Quint, and it worked now as well. And while the red-haired man was too surprised by this to do anything, Harry used the superior lift of his wings to overpower his own flight spell and throw him towards the ground. "Fate-chan!" Harry called.

"**Chain bind!**" Just as their proctor hit the ground, the golden cords wrapped around him, preventing his escape. Meanwhile the red-eyed beauty was already descending towards him with her Bardiche in its Zanber form readied for a stab. Only that didn't quite work as the enforcer once again ghosted out of the harms way, reappearing a few feet away without as much as a speck of dirt on his barrier jacket.

"That attack you've pulled here was quite reckless, almost suicidal, I'd say." He chastised Harry, who by now had landed by Fate's side. "But it worked. This time." Reaching for the ribbons pinned to his chest-piece, he took them off. "You've made me use my **Ghost Step** again, so, as I've promised,.."

"Out of my way, kids! Those are mine!" A new voice shouted. Turning their heads, the said 'kids' saw a Belkan knight in his late teens, who styled himself after Shaolin monks, complete with shaved head and a daibo as his device's default appearance, in a mad dash as he tried to snatch the ribbons out of the proctor's hands. He failed, of course, and only got a fist buried in his stomach for his troubles.

"Stealing the fruits of others' hard work is not nice." The red-haired enforcer said in a voice full of controlled fury. "I should fail you right here for that, but I'm a really good mood today, so I will only do this." Moving too fast for either Harry or Fate to see it, he tore the ribbon off the teen's chest, before blasting him all the way out of the courtyard with a spell that looked a like a slightly powered down version of Nanoha-chan's **Divine Buster**. "Sorry about that." The man continued, back to his cheerful self. "Jerks like that happen from time to time... Anyway, here you go." He said, handing over the well-earned ribbons to Harry and Fate.

Thanking the man for his generosity and kindness, the two youth took the ribbon and headed towards the exit from the training grounds so that they could finally pass this test...

As they approached the gates, though, they found out that there was one last trial they needed to get pass in order to complete the task: three investigators were guarding the exit and they weren't going to let them simply pass. Well, they weren't supposed to, at least. Even though they had a numerical superiority, Fate in her Sonic Form, even when weighted down by another person, was way too fast for them to stop her. Especially when they were temporarily blinded by the magical equivalent of a flashbang grenade that the young Potter's **Lumino** spell was.

* * *

In the end, out of twenty two mages and knights that had passed the written portion of the Investigator Training Program's admission examination, only eleven were able to pass the combat one. And despite being the youngest ones, Harry and Fate had actually accomplished the task with the third best time, which, in their opinion, was quite very good...

Once the test was officially over and the medics on standby had patched everyone who needed their help up, the eleven mint cadets were once again told to board the bus. Another ride later, they were brought to the Investigator Division headquarters on Mid-Childa,.. which were in a tower next to the one occupied by the Magitek Research Department.

The cadets then were taken to a briefing hall, where one of the captains listed the requirements one had to meet in order to graduate from the program and become a junior investigator. He also told the cadets what they will be taught to them by the instructors and what they will have to learn on their own. Expanding one's spell repertoire to meet the standards for the investigators fell under the self-study – it was quite understandable, though, as everyone here had a personalized style and treating them all alike by forcing to learn the same spells would not work all that well.

Speaking of the spells one needed to know in order to qualify for an investigator... As he listened to what the captain was saying, much to his own surprise, Harry found out that he already knew the spells of all but three kinds. He hadn't learned any healing spells yet; he also lacked a bombardment spell with a large area of effect; and, finally, he had no magics that could trap his targets in the immediate area. And acquiring all those spells didn't seem to be too hard either: Shamal could teach him more about healing magic that he would ever need to know, while guardian beast Zafira – when he was back from Hayate's Earth – would likely let him copy his **Hagane no Kubiki **spell, which could be used to cage someone or something among its other uses... As for the bombardment spells, Harry could develop one on his own.

The organization meeting went on for another half an hour, even if nothing really important was said during that time. Then, once all of the questions were answered, everyone was finally free to go... And seeing as it was getting close to the dinner time, the cadets were invited to have a meal at that division's cafeteria. The young Potter, however, chose to head back to his home right away: today had been a long day for him, and he wanted to finally have some well-deserved rest.

**~/ *** \~**

Between attending the mandatory courses, doing some self-study to expand his spell repertoire and continuing to adapt the familiar-creation ritual of the Mid-Childan origin to his own magic system, his first month as the cadet of the Investigator Training Program slipped by the young Potter very fast. Before he knew it, it was the end of July and his fifteenth birthday.

Reinforce, Shamal and Vita even threw a party for him. With the petite redhead managing to procure some surprising amounts of booze for somewhere, while citing that since he was now an adult by the standards of Ancient Belka, he should celebrate as one. But since the two knights had to work the next day they only had a couple of drinks each, leaving the man of the moment and the Avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky to bend the elbow with the rest of the stuff by themselves...

And as the night progressed, Reinforce moved to sit next to him on the sofa, way closer than she usually did with anyone but her mistress. But thanks to all of the alcohol coursing through him, the young Potter paid her a bit unusual behavior absolutely no mind...

"Harry-kun!.." Turning his head, the green-eyed teen saw obviously-drunk Reinforce looking at him intensely. Letting out a nearly-intelligible sound of acknowledgment, he was then surprised when the silver-haired beauty pushed him onto his back while climbing atop of him.

"R-Reinforce?" He asked, only to be silenced a moment later as she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his...

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	18. To Let Her Fly Again

The eighteenth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**Jose19**, **Guest #1**, hopefully, this chapter will answer your questions.  
**Impstar**, of course it is going to be awkward.  
**ShugoYuuki123**, **jgkitarel**, **karthik9**, **bop369**, **celf**, **art9000**, **serialkeller**, **Opinr**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Reishin Amara**, **ultima-owner**, **The 10th Wand**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**FateBurn**, Hayate is going to be Hayate... Poor Signum, she learns more about her mistress this chapter than she can handle.  
**firebluebird2006**, yes, Harry is going to do some work on his Earth soon enough. A small ark about that starts in two chapters, actually.  
**Arc-Angel-Of-Fire**, Signum and Vita, yes, are attached to Harry as well, but in a one hundred percents non-romantic way. And Nanoha already has found her prince. Hayate is a special case altogether, but at least she will eventually make Harry into a member of her harem. Or, however you want to classify him being the only male she would show interest in... And Reinforce is going to be a lover for both Harry and Hayate.  
**moon so bright**, eh?  
**Guest #2**, you probably shouldn't think too hard about it... But, in my mind, if it can bleed, it can get drunk, and Reinforce being a magical program like the Wolkenritter, can do that. And, sorry, I'm not that good with ASCII art to draw you one. ;)  
**Innortal**, I had my reasons for writing Harry the way I do. For one, "Nanoha" magic works quite very differently from the one seen in the "Harry Potter" universe. And if I somehow managed to combine those two in one character, that would make him or her too god-like for my own tastes: unblockable curses to deal with "Nanoha"-verse opponents and raw firepower to put wizards from his home world into their place... With Harry being limited to just one type of magic, I can give him opponent who are hard for him to win against without making up something utterly ridiculous.

*** AN**: I'm evil! I really am!

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter** **XVIII: To let her fly again...**

The next day began really awkwardly as Harry and Reinforce kept blushing when in the same room while doing their absolute best to avoid meeting each others' eyes. When that did happen, though, they would immediately look away and their blushes would gain a deeper shade of red.

The reason for all this, of course, were the events of the previous night, even if the young Potter couldn't quite recall what had actually happened back then: his memories were all fogged thanks to the copious amounts of alcohol he had consumed. And the hangover-induced headache he now had wasn't helping either. Nevertheless, he was quite sure that, thankfully, he and Reinforce hadn't gone too far. After all, when he woke up, he was still fully-clothed.

Not that it somehow made everything alright. The silver-haired avatar of the Tome, despite without any doubts being her own person, was still a vassal to her mistress, Hayate. And who knew what would that girl think about their relationship, real or perceived... A traitorous part of his mind, however, kept reminding him that having a curvaceous girl pressing her body against him as they kissed felt really awesome; and silencing that little voice was all but impossible for the young Potter.

The two female knights living with them, obviously, could clearly see the awkwardness Harry and Reinforce were experiencing around each other. But neither Vita nor Shamal asked any questions about it in the morning, mostly because they just didn't have time for such an 'interrogation'. When the situation didn't change by the time they returned from their work, though, the two Wolkenritter tried their best to find out what the cause of this awkwardness was. But of course, both Harry and Reinforce refused to tell them anything.

Vita, being as short-tempered as always, was the first one to lose her patience with them. And if she wasn't going to get any answers from them, then at very least she could force them to resolve whatever their issue was between themselves. Thus, the petite Knight of the Hammer dragged them into a room and locked them in there until they solved their problem. Or, in her words, until they 'made up or made out'. If only the redhead knew that the last part was actually the very source of the problem...

Harry wasn't sure just how long the two of them spent in this room, sitting in silence and doing their best to ignore the others' presence. But with everything pointing towards Vita being very serious about her threat of not letting them out until they had somehow resolved their issue, something needed to be done. And so he attempted to make the first step:

"R-Reinforce?" He said, trying his best to maintain the eye-contact with the silver-haired beauty.

"Yes?" She replied, also doing all that she could not to look away from him: the Knight of the Hammer was right and they indeed needed to overcome the problems their drunken midnight kisses yesterday had created for both of them.

"What had happened between us,.. W-was it a... ?" No, the green-eyed teen just couldn't make himself ask whether their brief moment of intimacy was just a mistake they made.

"An accident?" Reinforce asked, somehow picking a gentler word for what took place yesterday. "It probably was..." But before Harry really could sadden, she continued: "You're a good man, Harry-kun, and I definitely became attached to you. And so did my knights, even if some of them might be in denial..." An image of Vita with her Graf Eisen drawn immediately flashed inside the young Potter's mind. "It's just I don't know whether it is love... I can't say I even know love beyond the one I was programmed to have for my current master. And my feeling for you aren't quite the same."

"Oh..." The young Potter breathed out. Honestly, how was he supposed to respond to this confession of sorts? It was one, wasn't it? Having never really had any experience with romantic stuff, he just didn't know... Meanwhile, the red-eyed avatar of the Tome continued:

"I will not deny enjoying what we did, however. A contact of such kind feels nice. Yet..." There she made a small pause. "Yet, I don't know if it is even alright for us to experience this. I belong to master Hayate, and it is up to her how my life under her plays out." Harry let out an unintelligible sound, once again, not sure about how he should react to these words. Meanwhile, the silver-haired beauty inched closer to him. She then took his hand into hers, raising it to her chest's level and making a blush blossom on his face anew. Reinforce herself too was blushing a little. "But if my master doesn't object to this, we can doing some exploring... And if it is 'love' that I have towards you..." Even though she had trailed off before she could finish the sentence, it was quite clear she wouldn't mind advancing their relationship to the next level.

As the understanding of what she had just said and wanted to say dawned upon him, the young Potter couldn't help but blush a much deeper shade of red while doing his best to prevent himself from looking away from her. The silver-haired beauty too seemed to be have troubles with maintaining eye-contact with him at the moment. However, she didn't let his hand go...

Neither of them knew how much time they spent like this, but, after what felt like hours, they finally separated. Even now, they both were still blushing a bit, but nowhere near as much as they had been before. And it was about the time they got out of this room... Alas, they were still locked in there by the red-haired Knight of the Hammer.

"Alright." Harry said. "How are we going to convince Vita-chan that we've puzzled our problems out?" He asked then. The only response the silver-haired beauty was able to give him was a shrug.

**~/ *** \~**

The next month was not very easy on Harry. While he and Reinforce had agreed that there will be no 'experimenting' for the time being, his mind just couldn't stop reminding him about _that_ midnight accident. And that was why he was trying to always keep some distance between them, as much as it was possible within his not-so-humble adobe. It was almost like he didn't trust himself not to break and try to taste the forbidden fruit that the red-eyed beauty was again...

While definitely more subtle about keeping her distance from him, Reinforce was doing that too. And, of course, this change of dynamics between them didn't go unnoticed by Shamal and Vita. But since they at very least weren't turning into blushing blobs of hesitancy when within the same room anymore, the knights let them be.

Eventually, the time for Hayate's bimonthly visit came, and the silver-haired avatar of the Tome was the one to explain the new developments to her. The brunette's reaction to these news, though, was quite unexpected... At one point Harry had to interrupt her with a question of whether it was alright for her to tell them her fantasies just like this. Especially since it was making Signum – who, apparently, had been unaware of the fact that she regularly starred in her mistress' dreams of less than innocent nature – quite uncomfortable.

Her fantasies about her female knights aside, Hayate-chan didn't appear to have any problems with Reinforce developing some beyond-just-friendship feelings for Harry. Though, she was a bit confused about it all since the young Potter was undoubtedly a male with all ensuing consequences... This prompted the silver-haired beauty to explain her mistress that love knows no bounds and can't be controlled by anything. At the same time, she was also telepathically asking the Wolkenritter and Harry himself a rhetorical question of whether giving Hayate _the Talk_ would be a good idea...

Once this embarrassing conversation was over, the little Queen of the Night Sky began and Reinforce began catching up on the other things that had happened in their lives in the past two months. Meanwhile, Zafira and Signum – the latter still trying to get over the revelation that her mistress was fantasizing about her – cornered Harry in an empty room and threatened him with reprisal should he hurt Reinforce or her feelings. The green-eyed teen, of course, promised them to be as courteous with her as he could, which seemed to satisfy the two knights.

* * *

And thus Harry's life as the sort-of boyfriend for the Lady of the Blessed Wind began.

They, however, weren't rushing their relationship. While it was not uncommon to see them holding hands or otherwise being physically close to each other now, not to mention more than a few kisses they shared throughout a day, the two of them were in no real hurry to go far beyond that.

This was the first relationship of this sort for them both, so, understandably, they were quite afraid of screwing it up. Reinforce probably even more so than Harry: despite being one of the strongest beings in existence, she actually was a kind and gentle soul, yet she had being forced into the role of a harbinger of destruction and death both by many of her previous masters and by her Defense Program's corruption. And that has left a mark on her.

But the silver-haired beauty was doing her best to let her past be and live her new life to the fullest. And having a kind and gentle, if a bit perverted, mistress; a wonderful man to love her; and her cherished knights by her sides made her feel like she was finally on her way to her happily ever after!

**~/ *** \~**

Harry, of course, never stopped working on his magic-related projects as well. And adapting the Mid-Childan familiar-creation ritual to his own magical system and learning the spells he needed in order to successfully graduate from the Investigator Training Program were not the only thing he was doing. He was also planning the further upgrades for his device.

And one of those upgrades he would have liked to implement was an alternative way to gain momentary boosts in power. Cartridge System was good and all, but it also had some problems. One of those was a limited supply of the cartridges one could have at a time. Plus the cartridges themselves, if kept scattered outside of the magazines, could easily be lost. And depending on the way the magazine was designed, there also was a possibility of the whole system jamming, which was almost guaranteed to happen at the worst possible moment.

Which is why the system he was looking for had to have as few moving parts as possible, preferably none at all, and work without expendables. Something like a magical equivalent of capacitors or maybe accumulators. Such a system definitely had its own drawbacks. The most obvious one was the inability of such a system to provide as many back to back boosts as necessary since once a capacitor was discharged, some time had to pass before it was ready to be used again.

The others drawbacks of this design weren't as easy to spot for the young Potter, but they definitely existed: the aforementioned problem alone was not enough to make the capacitor-based boost systems completely unusable or unreasonable... Kyoko-sensei was kind enough to point those problems, which actually were the primary reason as to why no devices on the Administered worlds used mana capacitors, out to him, when showed her his notes:

Outside of the environments rich with residual mana, such a system would have to be powered by the very mage using it, which automatically made it practical only for those who already possess great amounts of magical power. And at the same time, such system would also require a very sophisticated control program in order not to handicap the mage during the active phases of combat by sucking mana out of him or her at bad times. Not to mention that a block of magical capacitors was likely to a couple of times bigger than even the most crude Cartridge System, making the whole thing ill suited for many types of devices even if all other problems were a non-issue.

But since Harry technically had an unlimited mana thanks to the reactor-type Lost Logia stuck in his chest, and the active forms of his device were based around a big clawed gauntlet, the Capacitor System might actually work alright for him. Or, at least, be a good addition to the already-installed Cartridge System. That would definitely make an interesting practical experiment...

Alas, implementing this Capacitor System would have to wait: at the moment there simply were no necessary parts to build it, not to mention that almost all of the employed Device Meisters were still extremely busy with upgrading the Bureau's agents' devices with the more conventional Cartridge System. Nevertheless, 'doctor' Chidori promised it to the young Potter that one day she would implement his ideas for him.

**~/ *** \~**

During the first days of December, the investigator cadets, Harry included, of course, were sent to one of the uninhabited worlds that the Bureau used as its extensive training grounds to undergo a three weeks long survival training. This time around, however, such a prolonged absence from Mid-Childa wasn't as troublesome for the young Potter. First of all, he was forewarned about this in good time. And he also wasn't living alone anymore, meaning that there always was someone who could look after Hedwig while he was away.

Anyhow, while braving swampy jungles filled with dangerous wildlife, deserts swept by the stinging winds, wide steppes and frozen tundras wasn't exactly what he'd like to do on a vacation, neither it was anything close to Hell on Earth for him. After all, his early years on Earth had taught him how to survive on bare necessities. And he was also pretty good at picking various skills like camp pitching up. Not to mention that, as always, he was paired with Fate-chan, someone whom he trusted implicitly... Thus, these three weeks of the survival training weren't at all bad for him.

Eventually, though, it was over, and the cadets – hopefully, more skilled and trained – returned back to Mid-Childa. And after reporting the results of the exercise to their superiors and getting a physical to make sure no one got infected with some nastiness, everyone was finally allowed to go home and get some well-deserved rest...

Harry, of course, was welcomed warmly by the knights and Reinforce, especially the latter. But what had really surprised him was the absence of Hedwig. His owl had some uncanny ability to know when he returned after being away for a long time and made sure to always be there to greet him. Yet, not today... And this was worrying him a lot. Especially when he learned that she had last been seen a few days ago. No, sure, it might be quite within a norm for her to disappear for some prolonged times, but she had never ever missed his return until now. Hopefully she was just too far away from home when she sensed him return to Mid-Childa and couldn't return back in time...

Hedwig wasn't back even in the next morning, however.

* * *

Early in the morning of the third day since his return to Mid-Childa Harry was woken up by a call from Quint-sensei. And with him being still half asleep, it took him a few seconds to process what the purple-haired knight was trying to tell him in a very panicking voice. But once he did, his drowsiness was blown away like little leaf in a tropical storm: Hedwig had finally reappeared, but she was not in a good condition... Quickly gathering the things that he might need, the young Potter left his home, accompanied by Reinforce, who decided that she should come along to offer him some support.

And while the bus, which was unusually annoyingly-slow today, carried the two of them towards the Nakajima household, he was already searching for the nearest vet clinic that could treat birds of prey. After all, owls weren't common pets even back on his Earth. Much less here, on Mid-Childa, where the exact species doesn't even exist... Thankfully, it looked like the advanced veterinary magitek used on the administered worlds was up to the task of healing even alien animals and birds. And it was also common enough for every major vet clinic to have the necessary equipment, so there was no need for Harry to look for a specific one.

At long last arriving to the stop they needed, the young Potter practically raced towards the house the Nakajima family lived in with his red-eyed girlfriend doing her best to keep up with him. About five minutes later they were already at their destination with Quint-sensei greeting them at the doors. The purple-haired knight seemed to have calmed down a little bit, but she still looked quite worried.

After a quick exchange of greetings, the three of them moved to the living room, where Hedwig currently was. And the simple fact that she was actually lying on a windowsill instead of being perched on something was enough to tell Harry that his owl was indeed in a bad condition. This was only confirmed further when she greeted him with a weak hoot before closing her eyes and going back to resting. Overflowing with worry for his companion, the young Potter walked up to her in order to see the true extent of her wounds for himself.

Most obvious, of course, were the numerous feathers that had been ripped off her left side. That was something he had seen even from afar; but now that he was standing this close to her, the green-eyed teen also noticed a few gashes his owl sported on her body and on the underside of her left wing that looked like a work of some sort of a big cat. And what's more, those wounds were a few days old and an infection had already settled in them by now... It was actually a miracle Hedwig managed to fly anywhere in her condition.

As he gently picked her up, the green-eyed teen also became aware of the fact that she was having a fervor. This was one more signal for him that he mustn't be wasting time if he wanted to save her. So, thanking Quint-sensei for the call and for her efforts in helping Hedwig – it was clear that the purple-haired knight had tried to treat the owl's wounds to the best of her ability – Harry, still accompanied by Reinforce, left the Nakajima household and sped towards the nearest vet clinic.

* * *

Too bad, the queues were omnipresent, and even Mid-Childa was not a safe haven from them: by the time the young Potter finally reached the clinic, the other people whose pets needed help had already formed a small line there, despite it still being quite early in the morning. At least, seeing the state Hedwig was in, some compassionate old lady, whose cat simply needed a check up, let him go in out of turn, something that he had thanked her for greatly.

Waiting for his turn in the queue, though, turned out to be nowhere as bad as was waiting for the veterinarian to reach a verdict. Especially since the man kept making a scan after a scan on Hedwig, who just sat there and let him do whatever he wanted with her – something she'd never let anyone were she in a perfect health... At long last, the doctor was finally done with the examination and ready to share his findings with Harry:

"You were quite right, those wounds look like something a large mountain cat would do to its victim." The veterinarian said. "Though, a cat that did it should have been able to subdue even larger prey; the fact that your owl managed to get away from it is nothing short of miracle..." There was a pause, before he began with the bad news: "Unfortunately, it looks like an infection got into her wounds, and this infection made her condition much worse. Had you brought her here a day or two ago, we might have been able to do something about it..."

"She returned only this morning. And we got there as soon as we were able to." The green-eyed teen couldn't help but interject. The doctor nodded, before continuing:

"I see... She's quite a little determinator then, isn't she?.." The man said. "Unfortunately, by now your owl's condition got to the point where the only thing we can do for her is granting her a quick and painless death." Upon hearing that Harry simply froze, unable to comprehend that the life of his first friend was over. Even Reinforce seemed to be affected, though nowhere as strongly...

His shock, however, didn't last for very long as he soon recalled Fate-chan telling him the story of how she met Arf and made into her familiar. If he was to believe her words, it seemed that the ritual could save even someone who had already all by sunk into the grave.

"But what about turning her into a familiar? Won't that save her?" The green-eyed teen asked.

"_Harry, are you sure about that?_" Reinforce asked him telepathically not a second later. "_You yourself said that you weren't sure your modification would work correctly. And if you screw it up, the chances are, it will be fatal for Hedwig._"

"_It seems to be the only chance to save her I still have._" He replied.

"It might." The veterinarian said. "But the first transformation stage of the ritual, the one where you would give her a proper Linker Core, puts a lot of stress on the body. Given how weak your owl's body is right now, it might kill her before you even get a chance to fix her with the final transformation." Harry thought about it for a few moments, before making a decision:

"I would like to try it." He said. If there was even a small chance of saving Hedwig, he was going to take it. The doctor nodded in response: it was, after all, the teen's right to choose this path.

"I wish you good luck then." The man said.

* * *

About an hour later, Harry and Reinforce were back to their apartment, and the green-eyed teen was ready to try turning his owl into his familiar, even if his adaptation of the ritual wasn't exactly guaranteed to work properly. Actually, it was more likely to fail spectacularly, and deep down he knew it himself. But he was still going through with it as there was a chance, however small it might be, that everything will work out as it should and Hedwig will be saved.

"Alright, here we go..." He said to no one in particular before taking a deep breath to calm himself down a bit – screwing everything up because he was too nervous was the last thing he wanted... Concentrating on his magic, he drew upon it, before directing it all towards the small feathered body of his owl, willing it to give her her own source of magic, Linker Core.

According to the veterinarian, this was supposed to be a very stressful transformation, yet it didn't look like it. Maybe it was because Hedwig was a magical post owl to begin with? Maybe whatever little magic of her own that she already had made the change much easier on her? Whatever the case might be, Harry wasn't going to look at the gift horse's mouth. Instead, he kept pushing forward, hoping that lady Luck was on his side today and will let him save his oldest friend.

The green-eyed teen wasn't quite sure how much time passed, but eventually his magic had given Hedwig her own Linker Core. Well, not a complete one yet, but still something for the next phase of the familiar-creation ritual to work. This second part of the ritual involved the actual contract between the master and the soon-to-be familiar. Much like Fate had done it with Arf, Harry used as open-ended one as possible – he didn't want their contract to be accidentally fulfilled as that would result in Hedwig ceasing to exist. So, the one he was using went along the lines of 'be my partner until the end of times'.

And that was where the things decided to go to Hell. For whatever reason, the connection between Harry's own core and the one he had just created for Hedwig didn't want to stabilize. And nothing that the young Potter tried was able to change that. If anything, each time he tried something to fix the problem, it only became worse... Then, something went absolutely wrong and the ritual's spell failed completely, sealing Hedwig's incomplete Linker Core in a state where it was no longer able to accept this kind of bond along the way.

This was the end!

Cradling his feathered friend in his hands, Harry sank onto the floor, looking somewhere far away without actually seeing anything. He didn't even notice it when Reinforce knelt next to him, or even when she placed her hands atop of his.

"Not everything is lost yet." She said softly, finally getting his attention.

"What do you mean?" He asked uncomprehendingly. "I failed. There is nothing left that can save her." The silver-haired beauty shook her head. Then she pushed her magic into Hedwig and pulled a pea-sized ball of electric-blue light – her Linker Core – out.

"You gave her this." The pretty lady said. "With it, we can rebuild her,.. as a unison device." Now this definitely got Harry's attention: it was another chance of saving Hedwig. However, he was still rather unsure about it as he knew how this change would affect her not. Almost as if she could read the questions in his head, Reinforce clarified: "Her Core carries the imprint of her memories and her feelings, so even if she will be reborn in a new form, she will be the same as you knew her." A small pause later, she added: "And I'm sure Yuki-chan would love to have a sister."

"Do it." He said after thinking about it for a few moments, the determination now burning in his eyes.

"Do you know Shario Finieno?" The red-eyed lady asked him then. "She has the equipment we will need to preserve this Core."

"Probably. Kyoko-sensei did introduce me to the other Device Meisters working at the Department back when I was still a civilian collaborator for them. I don't have her contacts, though." Reinforce let out a barely-audible sigh before sending the necessary information over to his device. "Tell her to bring the CPC-12 container with the support systems over. And that this is an emergency, of course. I might be able to extract Cores and all, but supporting one without absorbing it for long is not easy." Nodding, Harry initiated the call to Finieno-san...

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!

*** AN**: Yuki-chan mentioned in this chapter is more or less Reinforce Zwei, just without Eins' will embedded into her (since Eins is alive here). As for why her name was changed? Well, she was named "Reinforce II" in the canon because she is more or less the replacement of the original Reinforce for Hayate. But with Eins still alive here, Hayate simply has no reason to name anyone in her honor.  
And to make narrating a bit easier for me. ;)


	19. The Red World

The nineteenth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**moon so bright**, **SilverStarWaters**, **ultima-owner**, she'll get better!  
**art9000**, **god of all**, **karthik9**, **Opinr**, **FateBurn**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **Remilia - The Scarlet Moon**, **Penny is wise**, **chm01**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**The 10th Wand**, it will still be a few chapters before she returns to Harry's side.  
**Ranmaleopard**, I actually haven't planned on expanding the event that (almost) killed Hedwig, but I might change my mind. At the moment, though, it is supposed to indeed be just a random wild cat deciding it wanted some feathered snack.  
**rmiser1994**, yes, Hedwig will become Harry's unison device.  
**Jose19**, **roughstar333**, I've answered your reviews via PMs.

*** AN**: Harry's first return to his Earth is planned to happen in the very next chapter.  
Also, the name for the administered world #57 that stars in this chapter is from Ivan Efremov's book "_**The Bull's Hour**_"

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XIX: The Red World**

Ever since _that_ day, whenever it was at all possible for him, Harry visited the Magitek Research Department laboratories at least once a week. These days, he was doing it mostly for his own sake, to make sure that Hedwig was doing alright, even if she still was nothing more than a Linker Core, suspended within a glass tube and supported by complex magitek machinery.

During the first month, though, he had actually been actively helping Finieno-san. Mostly by providing her with the information about the peculiarities of his magic system. And by donating a small part of his Linker Core – procuring which was not the most comfortable procedure ever – to further strengthen Hedwig's one. In theory, this would make the two of them even more compatible with each other... Reinforce also donated a splinter of her Core to Hedwig, which, according to Finieno-san, made it quite likely that, upon her completion, she will be able to use Belkan spells as well.

Speaking of Reinforce... The near death of his friend had cut the ground from under the young Potter's feet and for a little while he was in no mood for doing anything too intimate. They held hands and cuddled, but that was it. Thankfully for him, the silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind was very understanding and gave him all the space he needed. Though, once he felt quite himself again...

Having always being the one more proactive about their relationship, the red-eyed beauty now upped her assertiveness a little bit as she recouped for the lack of the 'action' between them in the past week. Not that Harry, being a teenaged boy, minded having a very hot girl sitting in his lap and pressing herself against his chest as she kissed him with abandon. And with him being allowed and even subtly encouraged to touch her anywhere he wanted, the two of them had gone as far as it was possible without shedding their clothes.

Hayate-chan certainly got very inspired by seeing them being so touchy-feely with each other during her latest visit to Mid-Childa. It made the little Queen of the Night Sky want to try this herself. With Reinforce as her partner, of course. And try she did. While it would have been even more erotic, had she being a few years older, the sight of two girls kissing still was very exciting for the green-eyed teen. Especially since the the young brunette wasn't at all shy about feeling her lover up...

And while this realization probably came to the young Potter way too late, it looked like Hayate-chan decided to change her hairstyle a couple of months ago for whatever reason. Instead of keeping the bob cut she had had in past, she was now letting her hair down a bit. And, in his eyes, this new style suited her much better.

**~/ *** \~**

Administered world #57, Shakti, was a strange and unwelcoming place. Its mostly-cloudless purplish-blue skies, dotted with stars that could be clearly seen even during the daytime, were dominated by huge red sun that illuminated barren and dry as a desert landscapes with dim reddish light. One could even say that this place looked like the outskirts of the Hell.

Which might as well be true, seeing as this planet originally was completely devoid of life and didn't even have a proper atmosphere. Yet, its subsoil was so extremely rich with metals and mineral ores that the Ancient Belkan rulers terraformed and colonized it around five centuries ago, turning it into one huge mining site. Which it continued to be to these days.

This world, despite its relatively tiny population, also had by far the most frequent bouts of civil unrest among all the worlds controlled by the Bureau. And, according to the hearsay that reached Mid-Childa, something was about to happen there again. Finding out what was going on and determining the root of the problem, if there indeed was one, was the job that Harry and Fate got as the final part of their Investigator Training Program's graduation examination.

"_Why did we have to take a public shuttle, though? It makes us look suspicious._" The green-eyed teen asked his partner telepathically as they got out of the little spacecraft. "_I mean, this is definitely not the world you'd visit as a tourist, nor it is a place that attracts youth... There is no reason, from their point of view, for us to be here. We don't even look like someone born on this planet._"

"_You're being too paranoid, Harry-kun._" The red-eyed blonde replied. Though, she had to admit, he had a point: the two of them looked quite unlike the rest of the shuttle's passengers and, thus, were attracting some attention. Mostly curiosity, as there were very few people of their age who would willingly come here. Even many adults would rather work somewhere else, despite Shakti having the highest wages among all of the administered worlds.

"_Am I?_" The young Potter sighed "_Are we not being shadowed already then?_"

"_We are. An enforcer observer from the headquarters is following us. He is there to evaluate our progress with the task and, if something goes horribly wrong, to do the damage control._" Fate replied. There was a rather long pause, before Harry responded.

"_A-Alright._" He 'said', though it was clear that he was still a bit suspicious of this all. "_I guess, everything's gonna turn out well then._" He said wishfully. He was almost immediately chastised by the pretty blonde next to him:

"_You shouldn't tempt Fate, Harry._"

"_I'm not tempting you._" He said teasingly with a grin. "_That's Nanoha-chan's job._"

"_Prat!_" The red-eyed girl replied, now blushing deeply, as she playfully punched his shoulder.

* * *

Since it was quite logical that the local TSAB headquarters would have more information about what was going on here, Harry and Fate paid the central garrison of the administered world #57 a visit as soon as they checked in at one of the better inns. Too bad, the officer they got a meeting with was a lieutenant-colonel, who showed absolutely no interest towards anything going on around him unless he could profit from it. The only thing the two investigator trainees managed to learn from him was the likely source of the unrest: a phosphate and apatite processing factory a hundred or so miles to the south from this world's capital.

Without any other clues about what was going on here, Harry and Fate made a call to this factory's administration. They couldn't get a hold of the director, but his secretary was kind enough to answer their questions. According to her, the workers had been demanding some really unreasonable raise and with the factory's administration refusing to do that, the things were heating up... At the first glance, it looked like nothing really extraordinary was happening here. But...

According to the Bureau's databases, the official salaries at this world's processing factories were already high. Furthermore, those salaries had been indexed a little less than year ago – the administered worlds had a very low inflation – so the workers had no obvious reason to suddenly go on a strike and demand higher wages either. Something wasn't quite right here. That feeling was only reenforced when the labor union didn't answer their calls. Repeatedly.

Sending everything they had found out by this time to the Investigator Division headquarters, Harry and Fate asked, whether their investigation should continue or not. Since their superiors too seemed to think that something shady was going on there, they were told to carry on. And with their sources of information in the capital exhausted, the two youths decided to visit the factory. Maybe, if they got a chance to talk to some of the workers, they will get a clearer picture of what was happening here.

* * *

Even before they had reached the factory's check-point, it became clear that their intuition wasn't wrong and something was indeed going on here: the entire territory was twined by a high solid-metal fence with barbed wire on top of it. It also looked like its primary purpose was to stop the people already inside from escaping rather than to prevent the unauthorized entry.

And then there was a magical barrier surrounding the place – even a naked eye could see that it had some functions other than just filtering air... A quick scan confirmed that: this barrier was also blocking any unauthorized communications between those inside it and the rest of the world. It was also powerful enough to make simply flying above the fence impossible. Together with the aforementioned fence, this was making the factory look more like a labor camp straight out of the old movies.

Which gave the pair of investigators-in-training even more reasons to inspect this place. It was easier said than done... The only entrance onto the factory's grounds was blocked by thick metal gates, and a group of armed mercenaries guarding it didn't look like they would be nice enough to simply let them in. And while individually these men were low-B-rank mages at best, there was a lot of them, enough to make them a viable threat to Harry and Fate. Quantity has a quality all its own, after all...

"Investigator Harlaown, Investigator Potter." The blonde said while the two of them showed the guards their provisional licenses. "We would like to investigate the rumors of civil unrest taking place on this factory's grounds."

"Director's orders are not to let anyone in without his personal invitation." The man replied in a very unfriendly manner. Harry and Fate exchanged a glance: it looked like there was something inside that was supposed to remain unseen by them. All the more reason for them to inspect the place. Nodding mostly to herself, the red-eyed girl summoned a holographic display with the search warrant they had received as an attachment to the letter that told them to continue with the investigation.

"I have an official letter from the division's headquarters with a permission to search the grounds and..." She was interrupted before she could even finish.

"I told you, girl, I can't let you in without director's invitation." The man said angrily, while pointing his weapon – a rather simple storage device – at Fate. The other guards quickly followed his example. Now, denying them the entrance after they showed the warrant was a crime by itself, but there really wasn't anything Harry and Fate could do about it at the moment. If they were to force their way in, they needed a serious backup. Thus, they retreated. For now.

The Investigator Department headquarters will, of course, receive the recording of this exchange.

* * *

The response came in just under than two hours. In short, Harry and Fate were told to go to the nearest Ground Forces garrison and enlist a company as their support, before trying to gain an entry onto the factory's territory again, by force if necessary. It was a bit surprising for the two of them that no one more experienced will be taking over their mission, but... An order was an order.

Talking to the commander of the garrison took some time, but before another two hours could have passed, the two young investigators were given the temporarily command over the 32nd battalion's fifth company, which consisted of thirty combat mages and a single light tank. While it was nothing more than a basic Ground Forces' unit, it was enough to deal with a few squads of mercenaries that stood in the way of the investigation.

The mercenaries hadn't been idle during these hours either, though. Now, there were noticeably more of them standing in front of the gates, and they all were more battle-ready than before. But, judging by their faces, they hadn't expected a whole military unit with armor support to show up... Still, it didn't look like they were going to just forget about their orders not to let anyone without the director's invitation in. And a quick conversation Fate-chan had with their leader confirmed their intention to continue denying them the entry. Oh well...

"_Can your unit take care of these men, lieutenant?_" Harry asked telepathically. While under the normal circumstances the company commander outranked him and Fate, for the duration of this, well, mission, the two of them were the ones with higher authority.

"_Yes, sir._" The lieutenant replied. He really needed to get used to being called that, the young Potter thought. After all, he was just a single step away from becoming a special investigator.

"_Then, please, do that._" The green-eyed teen said then. "_We will try taking the gates down meanwhile._" Fate-chan, who actually was included into their conversation, nodded in agreement with the proposed course of action. Another few seconds later, the lieutenant confirmed that his unit was ready to act. "_Alright then. Let's go!_" And so the operation began.

While the Ground Forces' soldiers were forcing the mercenaries guarding the factory's entrance to hide behind any cover available with a lot of suppression fire, Harry and Fate concentrated on the task of getting past the check-point. And since it didn't look like there would be anyone kind enough to just open the gates for them, they were going to blow the aforementioned gates up instead.

Which was easier said than done... His not-quite-bombardment spell, **Solar Flare**, could easily put sizable dents into the gates, but it couldn't blow them off their hinges or even make a hole through them. And Fate-chan didn't have anything of quite the required power to assist him: all of her ranged spells were either anti-personnel ones or something that would evaporate the gates along with anything unfortunate enough to be within a hundred yards behind them. Plus, there were the mercenaries' reinforcements that kept appearing from... somewhere. And no matter how well the Ground Forces' soldiers were fighting, they couldn't keep guards' attention only on themselves, and more than a few spells ended up flying towards Harry and Fate.

"_Alright, change of plans._" The young Potter called, looking away from the gates that now looked more like a crater-covered surface of a moon than anything else. "_Let's take all of these guys down first._" Once his request was acknowledged by the lieutenant, the green-eyed special investigator began shooting the remaining guards off. Which was just too easy since his spells could follow predetermined trajectories, which made most covers all but useless. And Fate-chan didn't even bother with ranged combat, stunning any mercenaries that made a mistake of letting her get too close with well-placed strikes of Bardiche's Haken form instead...

Anyhow, within just a few minutes there were no mercenaries that were still able to fight left in the immediate vicinity. Which meant that it was the time to finally break through the gates. And since these gates had already proven themselves to be resistant to magic, they were rammed with the tank instead. After some struggling, the armored vehicle finally succeeded in opening the pass onto the factory's territory for everyone... What they saw inside made Harry and Fate and the soldiers pause.

The yard in front of the administrative building showed the signs of a recent battle with bodies of knocked out guards lying here and there on the ground... Turning their attention to the building, the young investigators could see a hastily-erected blockade – mostly just some furniture turned upside down – behind the locked glass doors.

"What the hell is going on here?" One of the soldiers asked aloud. Harry silently agreed with the man: the situation wasn't making much sense to him either. First, those rumors about ongoing civil unrest; then, a factory guarded like it was a prison; and now this. Of course, being an investigator, he was the one who was supposed to find the answers to these questions.

Thus, he began carefully advancing towards the administrative building, Fate-chan following him a step behind. When they were maybe thirty yards away from it, a large holographic display appeared on the front wall of the tower-like building, showing a random room inside. In this room there was group of ten or so rather poorly armed workers. Before them, on the flood sat about twice as many magically-bound clerks, other factory's administration's bureaucrats, along with a couple of security guards.

"Do not come any closer!" A voice came through the loudspeaker. "Or we will kill the hostages. You don't want that, government's dogs, do you?" Whether these guys had any good reason for this or not, they clearly didn't like the politicians...

"What do you want?" Harry asked loudly, hoping that he will be heard. He was.

"Have the ownership over the factory surrendered to the trade union. This is not negotiable." The same voice said. "If the documents aren't done by the end of the hour, we will start killing hostages." A short pause later the voice continued. "And don't think about storming the building, bastards, if you want hostages to live." There was another pause then. "Time's ticking, only fifty nine minutes left."

"This is seriously well outside our zone of competence." The young Potter said with a sigh as he turned around and began walking towards the check-point. His blonde partner nodded in agreement with him. "Where is that enforcer shadowing us, when we really need his help?" Fate-chan had no answer to this question: neither of them had caught a glimpse of that man since yesterday.

"We need to consult with the headquarters." The red-eyed girl reasoned, while already making the call and telepathically ordering the Ground Forces' soldiers to remain where they were.

* * *

Since it was impossible to process the necessary documents within an hour even if all required people were available – and they weren't – there was no way to satisfy the belligerent party's terms. There also were some doubts that those people will actually carry their threat out, but it was still decided that the situation needed to be resolved through force. And, somehow, the Bureau didn't have anyone more competent in dealing with situations like this, who could get there in under an hour, available... In other words, Harry and Fate were the ones who ended up tasked with sneaking into the building, disabling the abductors and freeing the hostages.

"And how are we supposed to do this?" The blonde asked no one in particular. An order was an order, yes, but... The administrative tower had cameras watching all of its entrances and neither Harry nor she herself had any spells that could make them invisible as they broke into the building. And approaching it in the open was out of question.

"Well..." The young Potter said quietly, before pulling out something that looked like a big piece of very light silvery cloth out of his pouch. "This is definitely not what I was expecting when I packed for this mission, but... I brought this along in case we will need to do some stealthy sneaking in." Fate raised her eyebrow: how this cloth was supposed to help them? As if he had read that question out of her mind, Harry turned cloth outside out and stuck his left hand under it. And both his hand and the cloth itself suddenly became invisible!

"Oh my!.." The blond beauty breathed out. She – well, Alicia – had read about magical artifacts with similar properties in fairy tales, but who would have thought that something like this could actually exist outside of the storybooks! Her partner merely grinned in response. That grin lasted only for a short second, though.

"It's far from perfect." He said. "I will make us invisible to a naked eyed, but that's it. We can still be heard, smelled or detected through other means while under it." There was a small pause, before he added: "And it won't be able to hide my wings if I try using my flight spell." And they needed to fly in: if they approached on foot, they'd have to open the doors, under the watchful eye of a camera. And a door opening 'by itself' would give them away.

"I'll fly us." Fate-chan agreed. "But where to?" In response, Harry pointed at a certain spot on the tower's plan the two of them had procured from the Ground Forces. To be more precise, he was pointing at the backstairs' balcony on the fourth floor.

"According to the building's plans we have, there should be no security cameras here." He said. "And it is pretty close to the hall where the hostages are kept" The red-eyed girl nodded. Indeed, it looked like the perfect spot since the less time they spent navigating through the building, the better.

"Then... Who will take care of which room?" She asked next. Harry shook his head in response.

"Hostages have to be secured first, and we should do it together." He replied. "Then, one of us should stay back to protect them, while the other wraps this all up." There was a short pause during which he brushed his hand against his upper chest were the greenish crystal was fused into his body. "I'll do that, powering up a strong barrier is much easier for me." And the stronger the barrier was, the smaller were the chances of something getting through it and hurting those inside.

"Alright. I'll take care of the remaining abductors then." Fate-chan agreed. "Let's go?" She said, while switching her barrier jacket into its Sonic Form. She then stepped really close to him and wrapped her left hand around his midsection so that she could support him properly in the mid-air. Taking a moment to banish the unnecessary thoughts – the ones about having a really cute girl so close to him while hidden away from the world by his cloak – out of his mind, the young Potter threw the invisibility cloak over the two of them, before wrapping his right hand around Fate-chan's shoulders.

"Let's." He agreed. "Just don't fly too fast." After all, it would be really really bad if they lost their camouflage when they needed it the most because they were speeding too much. Nodding in acknowledgment, the red-eyed blonde took off, carrying them both towards the barricaded tower...

* * *

A little more than a minute later Fate-chan soundlessly landed them onto the fourth floor's backstairs' balcony. The Luck was on their side and the door leading inside the building wasn't barricaded. Also, none of the security cameras had this door in their field of view, at least according to the plans of the tower they managed to get their hands on.

"_Okay, we still have eight minutes before the deadline._" Harry said telepathically as he began pushing the door open, careful not to make a single sound. "_Let's do it._" The red-eyed blonde next to him nodded and the two of them silently slipped into the building. There, they began inching towards the hall where the hostages were kept. Though, since they were making sure nothing would give them away, it took them some time to reach their destination.

Once again, Lady Luck was smiling upon them, as the door leading into that hall was left half-opened. Peeking inside, they saw that the hostages were all gathered together in the center of the room with their abductors either watching the Ground Forces at the factory's check-point through the windows or just leaning against the walls.

"_Ready?_" The green-eyed teen asked as he prepared to produce the strongest barrier he could muster. Fate-chan responded with a nod. "_Then, on three... Three... Two... One..._ **Aegis Barrier!**" He called out while throwing the invisibility cloak off. And before anyone inside the room could react, the hostages were already surrounded by a whitish dome of magical energy.

Just a second later this barrier was already put to the test as the abductors tried to shoot the hostages through it. They failed, even if the spells they used were specifically designed for breaking hard stuff like rocks and mineral aggregates... Satisfied that the hostages were perfectly safe for the time being, the two provisional investigators focused their attention on the belligerent party, the men of which were now glaring daggers at the two of them.

"Surrender yourselves peacefully and you will be given..." Fate began, only to be interrupted.

"Go to Hell, government's dog!" One of the workers-turned-abductors snarled, while sending a yellowish bolt of magic towards her. The projectile splashed harmlessly against the shield the red-eyed girl raised without as much as a single gesture or a single word.

"Then, we're going to do it the hard way." She said with a sigh. "Bardiche, Haken Form!"

「_Yes, Sir!_」Her device replied in a synthesized voice, as it reconfigured itself to satisfy its master's needs... Harry too got ready for a fight, surrounding himself with his protective mana cloak. And for whatever reason, he also brought his wings out, even if he had no need in them here, indoors. There wasn't even enough space for him to fly properly! But since the strain from maintaining the wings was negligible for him, and they could be used for psychological warfare, the young Potter decided to keep them for now... The two young investigators exchanged a quick glance.

They might be outnumbered eight to one here, but their opponents were just some miners and other civilian workers. None of them were above high-C-rank when it came to magical power and, unlike the mercenary guards from before, these men didn't have any proper combat training to make up for their lack of personal strengths. But they were still going to fight until the bitter end... And now that they chose to become criminals, Harry and Fate were there to give them such an end.

"_Take the left side of the hall, I'll deal with those on the right._" The green-eyed teen asked his partner telepathically. The blonde gave a mental equivalent of a nod, before charging into the battle, the golden blade of her scythe already raised for a strike. Harry himself too went on offensive. "**Starfall Shooter!**" He called, summoning a number magical bullets, before sending them towards 'his' group of abductors. And while most of the projectiles actually ended up missing their targets, the barrage still knocked out three men out of seven.

Glancing to the other side of the hall, the young Potter saw Fate-chan swiftly and skillfully taking her opposition down with her glowing scythe. Smiling briefly at the sight of his partner giving her best to the combat, Harry returned his attention to his own fight – he still had four baddies to deal with, after all. And since those four have proven themselves to be something more than a cannon fodder as they were able to evade the first barrage of his magical bullets, he needed to limit their mobility first.

"**Whips of Light!**" Catching them by surprise, a number of whitish cords made from pure mana wrapped themselves around the remaining four opponents of Harry's, making it impossible for them to move even an inch from the spots they occupied. Seeing that he now had them immobilized, the green-eyed teen began charging the next barrage of his **Starfall Shooter** up... Suddenly a number of magical bullets hit him in his back. Thankfully, those were weak enough for his mana cloak to reduce them into mostly harmless blobs of mana. They still hurt, but they didn't knock him out or worse...

Turning to look towards where that attack came from, the young Potter saw a group of five more baddies standing in the doors leading into the hall. The two parties then stared at each other for a few moments. Harry, because he honestly didn't expect these guys to arrive here so quickly; and his new opposition because they just saw their attack hit him yet do absolutely nothing, aside from alerting him about their presence. Somehow, despite all of his training, the green-eyed teen wasn't the first one to react. Thus, he was forced onto the defensive for a few moments as he raised a shield to intercept a barrage heading his way. Then he launched a counterattack.

"**Solar Flare!**" The five he was currently facing jumped to the sides as big and powerful magical bullet sped towards them. They, however, hadn't anticipated just how great this projectile's area of effect was. Thus, they still took the hit, which, while not enough to knock them out, made them all easy target for the follow up attack consisting of smaller but better aimed magical bullets... Done there, Harry turned his attention back to the group he had caught with his binding spell earlier, only to find out that Fate-chan has already dealt with them.

"That's all of them here." The blond beauty said as she returned her device into his base form.

"Help me tie them all up?" While all of the abductors in the hall had been knocked out one way or another, making sure that none of them could just come back to their senses and launch a surprise attack was a must. And placing fifteen men into magical equivalent of handcuffs took time.

"Alright." Fate-chan agreed, before proceeding to start applying the spells to the defeated baddies. Harry, though, didn't join her immediately, taking a moment to glance at the doors leading into the hall instead... And it was a good thing he did it – his invisibility cloak was now missing. He really shouldn't have had just thrown if off when the two of them stormed into this room. Though, in his defense, folding it up and returning it to his pouch would have taken the time they didn't have back then.

Anyhow, they were in a problem as one of their opponents was running around invisible and, likely, was going to use this to avenge his fallen comrades any moment now. Closing his eyes to concentrate, the young Potter released a burst of magical power. And a moment later the technique gave him the answer as to where the man wearing his invisibility cloak was – he was just a couple of feet behind Fate-chan, and, apparently, was ready to hit her on her head with something heavy. Wasting no time, the green-eyed teen jumped at the man, tackling him onto the floor.

"Harry, wha-?" His pretty partner began asking as the dark-haired youth wrestled the camouflaged attacker. Unfortunately for the provisional investigator, his opponent was both stronger and heavier than him, thus Harry soon found himself pinned to floor and likely a moment away from getting his head smashed with whatever makeshift weapon the man was holding in his hands... That was when the invisibility cloak slipped off its current wearer, revealing a huge unshaven man – a mechanic, judging by the state of his clothes – with a big wrench raised above his head for a strike. Fate's reaction was immediate: "**Plasma Lancer!**" The bastard had no time to react as a good dozen of golden magical projectiles slammed into him, instantly knocking him out cold.

"Thanks, you save me here." The young Potter breathed out as he rolled the now-unconscious man off himself, before proceeding to handcuff him. The blond beauty waved her hand dismissively – he had saved her first, after all – before going back to tying the defeated criminals up...

Just couple of minutes later, they two provisional investigators were finally done there. From there, Fate-chan went ahead to deal with whatever was left from the original belligerent party within the tower. Harry, meanwhile, remained in the hall to guard the hostages and their captured abductors, while also overseeing the Ground Forces' company still supporting them escort everyone out of the building.

* * *

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have saved us all!" A short and portly man who happened to be one of the factory's vice-directors gabbled. "What can I do to thank you for this?" He asked.

"You can come with us quietly." A new voice said. Turning his head to look there, the young Potter saw the enforcer that had been shadowing him and Fate-chan during their first day on this planet. Accompanying him there were three policemen and a green-haired young man in a white suit, surrounded by a small pack of spectral hounds. "You're under arrest for conspiracy in financial machinations, spreading disinformation, bribery and attempted enslavement of humans." Those were some serious charges, so, understandably, both Harry and Fate were very surprised to hear that someone they had just saved was involved in something like that. Meanwhile, the enforcer continued: "Do not resist and you will be given a chance to plead your defense before the court."

The vice-director, though, wasn't going to surrender and tried to flee. Unfortunately for him, the spectral hounds were just as fast the real ones, and he got caught by them in under five seconds. And these dogs also were far from gentle with him...

"_Sir, can you please explain us, what is going on here?_" Harry asked the enforcer telepathically, while the green-haired young man – inspector Verossa Acous – and the policemen were escorting the now-cuffed man away.

"_Of course._" The man replied. "_It appears that the director of this factory decided that he would like to increase his personal income by making the workers work for him for free. And to make sure that this little scheme of his succeeded, he installed the barrier to make unapproved contacts with outside world impossible and hired mercenary guards to keep the workers from rebelling._"

"_Oh my!_" Fate-chan exclaimed. Ignoring this, the enforcer continued:

"_Of course, some rumors about this illegal activity still leaked, and an inspection was sent to confirm or disprove them. Back then, we had believed their reports saying that everything was in order, but now we known that that inspection was actually bribed to hide the truth from the Bureau._"

"_That would certainly explain why the belligerent party was so hostile towards us._" Harry said after thinking about it for a moment. "_They must have thought that the Bureau is taking the side of their director and permits him to enslave them._"

"_Probably._" The enforcer agreed. "_That, however, doesn't excuse them. Taking hostages and threatening to kill them, no matter the circumstances, is still a serious crime._" There was a long pause, during which the two young investigators conveyed their agreement with such a stance. Then, the man continued: "_Anyhow, good job here you two. I'm terribly sorry that I could not help you with storming, but my unit was busy with apprehending the bastard that created this whole mess._"

"_Thank you, sir!_" Harry and Fate said as one as they saluted.

"_Now, I'm sure this was a long day for you two._" The enforcer continued. "Go have some rest now, you've earned it. I will oversee the rest of mission for you." Thanking the man, the two provisional investigators, indeed tired out by the day's events, left the factory's grounds and headed for an inn in the nearby town.

**~/ *** \~**

Immediately upon their return to Mid-Childa, Harry and Fate were escorted straight to the Investigator Division headquarters. There, they had to give the division commanders an oral report on the events that took place during their mission on the administered world #57, Shakti. And considering how eventful that mission was, this report took quite some time... At least, the commanders were pleased with their performance, enough to promote them into junior investigators, thus graduating them from the training program. And once all of the formalities had been dealt with, the two youths were at last allowed to return home and get some rest.

A little more than half an hour later, Harry finally stepped into his apartment. And almost immediately he was confronted by Reinforce, who wasted no time in wrapping him in a gentle embrace, pushing him against the wall and kissing him passionately. For a brief moment the young Potter wondered what has gotten into his silver-haired lover since he had been gone for but a single week, but those thought were quickly purged from his mind as the beautiful Lady of the Blessed Wind continued to snog him like her life depended on it.

From this point on his memories got a little bit hazy, so the green-eyed teen wasn't quite sure how they ended up cuddling half-naked on his bed. But he most certainly wasn't going to complain about it. And if this was how Reinforce will greet every time he returned from a mission... Mmm...

**~/ *** \~**

In the late afternoon of an early April day a small shuttle stealthily descended towards the magically-concealed base located in the woods maybe ten miles to the north of Lancaster city. Its pilot and, seemingly, the only passenger was a woman in mid-twenties with long purple hair with a pair of blue clips in them and yellowish eyes. Her clothes consisted of white-and-blue dress uniform knock off with a thin brownish ribbon held together by a clamp with roman 'I' carved onto it acting as a tie.

Meeting her on the ground was a somewhat short and rather plump man with disheveled graying hair and a small beard and small beetle-like black eyes, one of which was hidden behind a miniature display constantly flashing with various data. His clothes consisted of a deep blue suit with a white lab coat, splotched with machine oil and other similar substances here and there, thrown over it.

"Welcome to my base, mistress Uno." The man greeted, while a pair of big spherical gadget drones he brought along to the airfield 'greeted' the woman with blinking lights. "We have been expecting you."

"I take it, you have settled down nicely here." The woman, Uno, said after she gave the man a small nod of greeting. While this shorty was without any doubts a gadgetry genius, her father and creator, Dr. Jail Scaglietti, didn't consider to be him very important for his plans, so there was no real need for her to show him much respect either.

"Yes, yes, this place, the non-administered world 138, is absolutely perfect for my research. This world is not considered to be very important by the TSAB, so their patrol vessels don't visit it very often. And the locals appear to be completely incapable of magic – they won't be able to discover my base either." He replied. "I can work in peace here!"

"Good." Uno concluded. "Doctor is expecting many results that will let him further his agenda from you. Please see to that his trust into your abilities is not misplaced." After all, sponsoring any research took money and it wasn't like her father had unlimited resources. Even with the High Council of the Bureau secretly sponsoring him... According to her sister's latest report, those brains in jars still thought that they actually were in control here... What a bunch of old fools!

"Of course, of course, I will do my absolute best to satisfy your needs for combat drones." The Gadgetry genius replied. "I owe my freedom to master Scaglietti after all." There was a small pause before he continued: "I'm currently trying to reverse-engineer the Ancient Belkan combat drones, and I believe I've made some progress. Would you like to see it? I should be able to give you the ways to produce those marvelous machines of war en masse, just give me a few more months!"

"Yes, please show me your work." Uno said. After all, right now they had little to no understanding of how those attack drones they had recovered from the downed Saint Cradle worked and had no means of replacing those destroyed by their enemies. Being able to create more of those robotic allies would significantly boost Doctor's forces.

"Please follow me then, mistress Uno." The gadgetry genius said, before turning around and heading inside of his laboratory, flanked by those two type III drones of his. Letting out a small sigh, Uno followed the man into the interior part of the base. Her invisible guards, a trio of type IV gadget drones, went along with her, their scythe-like spider legs clacking inaudibly against the floor... After all, Doctor Scaglietti was not stupid enough to let his most treasured daughter go anywhere without due protection, even if none of her more combat-oriented sisters were available for that task at the moment.

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That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	20. Back to the Cradle

The twentieth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**aznxa21**, **god of all**, **FateBurn**, **ultima-owner**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **Opinr**, **Penny is wise**, **Liazas**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Reishin Amara**, why, yes, it is.  
**Jose19**, I've answered your review via PM.  
**roughstar333**, yes, the (admittedly quite short) third arc starts this chapter.  
**art9000**, the cloak being almost stolen wasn't in the original plan for the chapter, so I'm glad that it turned out to be a good addition.

*** AN**: I have made a small change to the previous chapter. The Scaglietti's associate's base was moved from north-east of Lancaster to just north of Lancaster - there is a bigger forest to hide it properly there. Otherwise, everything remains the same.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XX: Back to the Cradle**

Like she said she would, Fate enrolled into the enforcer training program as soon as she was promoted into a full-fledged investigator. Naturally, because of that she couldn't be Harry's teammate anymore, but the green-eyed teen was quickly given a new partner... Much to his surprise, he got paired up with Megane-sensei: the pretty Belkan summoner had decided to return to active duty now that little Lutecia wasn't as dependent on her anymore. But since she got a little bit rusty over the past two years, she decided to stick to low key jobs for the time being, instead of going on far more dangerous missions with Quint and Zest straight away.

Meanwhile, on the last days of April, Hayate-chan was finally done with passing her middle-school exams as an extramural student – quite an impressive feat, considering how young she was, even if a lot of knowledge got implanted into her mind by the Tome – and moved over to Mid-Childa in order to pursue her dream of becoming the true leader for her knights. Though, right now she wasn't ready to enter a military academy yet... Her legs were also getting better. While she still spent most of the time in a wheelchair, she now could also walk for a little bit using a pair of crutches to support herself.

Her becoming a permanent resident of the Yagami-Potter household, though, created some problems for Harry's relationship with Reinforce. To be precise, the little Queen of the Night Sky wanted as much of the silver-haired beauty as she could get and kept hogging her attention whenever it was possible. And since she wasn't exactly bound to a wheelchair anymore... However, since Hayate-chan never explicitly forbid the red-eyed Lady of the Blessed Wind from continuing seeing Harry, the two of them continued getting intimate with each other, just not during the day hours... And since they needn't be as discreet at night, this actually resulted in them taking their relationship to the next level and finally having it off before long.

By the time June rolled around, the young Potter's life settled into something akin to a routine: training to improve himself during the day, sleeping with Reinforce – sometimes just sleeping, sometimes not – at night. And going on missions with Megane-sensei once in a while. Usually, those were some simple jobs to weed out the corruption among the various officials that governed the many administered worlds, but they also hunted and arrested some criminals as well, like that black market dealer who was, among other things, suspected of selling banned goods to Jail Scaglietti.

As it turned out, those suspicions weren't baseless, and with the information that inspector Verossa Acous managed to drag out of that man's mind, the Bureau learned about one of Scaglietti's major bases being located on the non-administered world #73, Ceres. A reconnaissance mission was organized by the last week of June, and Megane was asked to rejoin her old teammates for it. The lavender-haired summoner agreed, once again leaving Harry without a partner. But before a new one could be found for him, he ended up on a solo survey job...

**~/ *** \~**

John Stone was a bit unkempt man of about forty five years old, currently unemployed and a bit of drunkard. He lived in the village of Over Kellet – one of those places in the world where nothing major ever happened – so it left quite an impression on him when one day, returning from a birthday party of one of his surprisingly-numerous friends that was held in a bar in the nearby Nether Kellet village, he saw something flying above the hills.

Having being a spotter for an artillery battery during his time in the army, John could recognize that the object he saw definitely wasn't something from the British Army. Actually, that sleek bluish-gray thing didn't look or behave like anything that was made anywhere on Earth with the current technologies. Was there an alien invasion taking place that no one bothered to inform him about? And since Mr. Stone was quite drunk, he decided that it ought to be the case, and that he needed to inform the authorities about it.

A detailed drawing of the unidentified flying object, including its approximate measurements, certainly made this case of sighting much more credible than the other reports of UFO sighting, but nevertheless no one at the local police department believed that this the Earth was secretly invaded by malevolent aliens. That, though, didn't mean that the NEETs didn't overplay this – eventually, the story actually made its way onto the local TV channel, but, of course, it wasn't treated as anything serious. At least by those on the Earth...

By pure luck, investigative spaceship "Leto" of the Time-Space Administrative Bureau was in the right place at the right time to intercept that particular broadcast. And its crew immediately recognized the thing on John Stone's drawing as a type II Gadget Drone, one of the many toys in the arsenal of inter-dimensional criminal, Jail Scaglietti. Furthermore, since the drones had never shown an ability to leave a planet by themselves, it meant that one of the Scaglietti's bases was here, on the non-administered world #138! Rear admiral Lindy Harlaown needed to be informed about it as soon as possible.

**~/ *** \~**

"Good day, colonel Abarth!" Harry greeted while saluting as he entered the briefing hall seven in the Investigator Division headquarters. Then he noticed that the colonel wasn't the only one here. Certain teal-haired rear admiral was also there. "Li-... Rear admiral Harlaown?" Lindy smiled warmly in response, before growing much more serious a mere moment later.

"There was a sighting of gadget drones on the non-administered world #138." She said without further ado. "Given what those things are, it makes us believe that Dr. Scaglietti or one of his close allies has build a base here, however there are no indications that this base is a major one, so it was decided that you alone shall suffice for this reconnaissance mission."

"I see..." The young Potter breathed out, while thinking hard about what he had just learned: a major criminal that the Bureau was hunting fro a few years had sunk his claws into his home world. Which probably was the main reason why he was selected for this job, even when it should have probably been given to someone more experienced. "Is there any more detailed information about where the drones were sighted?" Rear admiral Harlaown nodded before summoning a big holographic screen with a map of Earth. A moment later the map zoomed towards the British Isles and a big red marker appeared somewhere on the countryside in Lancashire.

"A gadget drone was seen by one of the locals around a week ago on an accident. And we would have never known about this at all, had one of our patrol vessel not intercepted a television broadcast where a detailed drawing of the drone was shown." Lindy explained. "Thus, we do not know where the sighting actually occurred, but according to our knowledge of the drone's abilities, it must have a base somewhere within two hundred kilometers."

"So... There is Scaglietti's base somewhere in Great Britain..." Harry whispered under his breath. "My mission is to confirm the location of this base, right, colonel, rear admiral?" He asked after a small pause. The two commanders nodded.

"Yes, you will need to locate his base. Depending on how much forces he has there, we will decide on the further course of action." Colonel Abarth replied.

"Understood." The green-eyed teen said then. "Shall I start packing for this mission?" Lindy nodded.

"Yes, you will be working from aboard of investigative spaceship "Leto" – I believe, you're already somewhat familiar with her crew – and she will be departing towards the non-administered world #138 tomorrow at seventeen hundreds from dock C-32 of the headquarters." Harry nodded.

"I will be there, rear admiral." He said while thinking that it was actually quite nice that he will be working with the people he was already at least somewhat familiar with... On the second thought, it has been almost three years since he last stepped aboard of "Leto", so there were no guarantees that her crew was the same. Oh well, he'll get his answers tomorrow either way...

**~/ *** \~**

Even though it wasn't the first time he visited this place, the Bureau headquarters in the Dimensional sea still impressed Harry every time: it was hard for him to believe that something so huge could have been built by human hands, magic or no magic. Not that the green-eyed investigator really had time to be awestruck by this city-sized space station today – he was on a rather tight schedule here as investigative spaceship "Leto" he was supposed to board was departing in a little less than an hour...

And dock C-32, where this vessel was, just had to be in another part of the headquarters! Thankfully, the monorail on the central floor allowed one to get around this humongous space station pretty quickly, and he managed to arrive to the dock he needed with some time to spare.

Greeting him at the spacecraft's hatch there was a Dimensional Navy corporal, whom the young Potter had never seen before, so their talk was all-business. And, once he was let aboard, the green-eyed youth headed straight to the bridge to report to the vessel's captain. That conversation too was quite formal, especially since he had never spoken to the man before... With all of the formalities done for the moment, Harry decided to drop by Aoko Hoshido's office to say 'hello' – he had gotten rather close with the red-haired warrant officer during the time he spent aboard of "Leto".

"Harry-kun?" Aoko asked, surprised, when he appeared before her eyes. "You're an investigator now?" Apparently, she had been unaware of the identity of the investigator the Bureau had assigned to this mission... The green-eyed teen nodded.

"Long time no see, sensei." While warrant officer Hoshido hadn't taught him all that much, she still was the one who had introduced him to _this_ world of magic, thus, she still was his teacher... "And, yes, I've passed my exams in March." He replied. "And since this Earth is my home world, the headquarters decided that I was the best person to investigate the sightings of Scaglietti's drones there."

"Congratulations on joining the elites." The redhead said. "And, I'm sure, it will be nice to work alongside with you." There was a short pause before she continued by asking a question about how he had been in the past almost three years. Of course, she had heard a few things about Harry's adventures from Chidori-san, but right now she wanted to hear what Harry himself thought about it all. "So... How's your life on the administered worlds?"

"As well as you can see, sensei." The young Potter replied, while tapping the epaulets on his left shoulder with his right hand. "Yet, even if this new life is likely much better than anything I could have hoped for had I stayed on my Earth, I haven't forgotten that you lot had used some minor manipulations to make me come with you." Warrant officer Hoshido waved her hand nonchalantly.

"And have you forgiven us?" She asked then.

"Probably." The green-eyed investigator replied after a few moments of silence: manipulated into emigrating from Earth he might be, it had had indeed changed his life for the better. He had an interesting job, awesome and friendly mentors, good friends and even a very special girlfriend now. He doubted he'd have all that had he chosen to remain on his home world... So, could he really be angry at the "Leto"'s crew? There was another, much longer pause, before he spoke again, changing the subject: "And how have you been these three past years?"

"We are a vessel that patrols the periphery worlds; it rare for something interesting to actually happen on our watch." Aoko said, sitting down on the edge of her table. "That TV broadcast we've intercepted was the most memorable thing to happen throughout our last three scouting tours. Then again, even if it is quite boring, it's better than running into problems every other day. This tranquility means that we all are doing our job of maintaining peace well."

"True..." Harry agreed. "Well, once I'm done with locating Scaglietti's base, the Bureau, depending on how big it is, may send a team of enforcers or maybe even a couple of battalions to deal with it. And, I'm sure, you will get to watch all this action from the front row seats."

"He he." 'Doctor' Hoshido chuckled.

**~/ *** \~**

Sixteen years old Daphne was a rather pretty dark-haired girl, a pure-blood witch, and the eldest daughter and the heiress of the Noble house of Greengrass. Those, who knew only her 'mask' that she wore at Hogwarts, might be of an opinion that she was quite cold an unfeeling; a true Ice Queen, who cared only about herself, her family and the few friends she had, but that was not entirely correct. There were other things she cared about and liked, though, some of those were best kept secret... Like her love of muggle sweets, for example.

She didn't quite remember how she got hooked on those delightful little things, but now, whenever she wasn't trapped at Hogwarts, Daphne would descend to the muggle village of Arkholme every once in a while in order to buy herself some chocolates or candies or whatever else she might desire at the time.

Today had been one such day of shopping, and right now the dark-haired witch – dressed in light summer robes of yellow color that could easily be mistaken for a long dress – was on her way back to the Greengrass manor, humming some tune under her breath contently. Lost in her thoughts about a late night tea she'd have when she got back home, Daphne wasn't paying all that much attention to the road she was following... Then again, why would she? She had walked down it enough times to be able to do it blindfolded now.

And while she indeed might have known the road itself pretty well, she wasn't a seer to foresee any and every thing that could happen while she was en route there. Especially when one such thing happened to be a floating blue and gray metal sphere of about five feet in diameter with three unblinking yellow 'eyes' on its front moving out of the woods.

Whatever that thing was, its sudden appearance out of the undergrowth had surprised the Greengrass heiress greatly. And her startled cry, apparently, also told this floating sphere that it wasn't alone there, causing it to turn around and 'stare' at the dark-haired girl with its mechanical 'eyes'. For the next couple of seconds nothing happened. Then, light began glowing from inside one of the four small opening located around the thing's lower 'eye'. A moment later, a yellowish-green beam of light was sent flying towards Daphne.

Having being trained in the art of dueling a bit by her father, the Greengrass heiress managed to dodge this attack, while simultaneously drawing her wand: even if she wasn't supposed to use her magic during the summer holidays, she won't get punished for this as it was a clear cut case of self-defense. Not that the Ministry would bother with sending her a warning about an improper use of magic – unless the Statue of Secrecy got broken, the pure-blood kids could use their magic as much as they wanted.

"**Stupefy!**" The dark-haired witch called, sending a reddish beam towards... whatever that floating thing was. Unfortunately for Daphne, the spell didn't quite work. Actually, for whatever reason it didn't even reach its intended target, dispersing into nothingness a few inches away from it. Still, somehow it made the metal sphere pause. "**Bombarda!**" This time, the spell actually managed to reach that thing, but it still got weakened a lot and, thus, bounced harmlessly off its surface.

That got some bigger reaction from the... floating thingy. Hatches on its sides opened, releasing a pair of blackish mechanical tentacle-like limbs, which immediately shot towards the shocked Greengrass heiress. The young witch managed get herself moving before those could reach her, but, alas, she was too slow and one of those tentacles managed to wrap itself around her foot, causing her to fall onto the ground... Daphne then tried to free herself by cutting that artificial limb with a powerful cutting curse, but it didn't quite work as her spell didn't do much besides peeling some paint off. And what was worse, the second mechanical tentacle was now wrapped around her torso, effectively turning her into a toy for whatever this hovering sphere was.

Lifting her off the ground, the unidentified floating thingy brought Daphne right in front of its three-eyed 'face'. Then the four cannons there glowed and a moment later four beams hit the black-haired beauty squarely on her chest, making her let out a loud cry of pain. Another barrage hit the Greengrass heiress a second later, this time actually knocking her unconscious.

**~/ *** \~**

The first three days of combing the upper England countryside for any traces of Scaglietti's drones bore no results, and it didn't look like today would be any different, Harry thought. Then again, without his assets being hidden well, that man wouldn't have been able to hide from the Bureau for years, now would he? Still, not finding even a single clue about where his base on this world was frustrated the young special investigator quite a bit.

And when he was about to make a late dinner break at a cafe in the village Capernwray, Lady Luck finally decided to smile upon him: his eyes caught the sight of a type III gadget drone moving towards the sea through the underbrush. The said drone was also carrying something yellow – the green-eyed teen was too far away from it to see what it was clearly – in its mechanical hands.

Letting out an annoyed grumble as he would have preferred this all had happened after he had his meal, Harry started chasing after the gadget drone. Thankfully, it wasn't moving too fast and the teen investigator could almost keep up with it with, even if he had to follow it through the undergrowth and other cross-country, once he had enhanced his body through an application of mana.

Eventually, this chase ended as the drone finally disappeared from the green-eyed youth's view in a forest by the seashore. That didn't matter much, though, as a powerful concealment barrier of Mid-Childan origin within the woods made it quite clear to the young special investigator that Scaglietti's base was somewhere here.

Indeed, as he made his way into the forest, Harry soon ran into a metal fence, surrounding a couple of relatively small buildings, a hangar and a currently-empty landing pad. There also was a number of gadget drones, either patrolling the area, or just docked to the filling stations. Most of those were types I and II, though a few modified type III could be seen as well. All in all, this base didn't look like anything more than a mere outpost. Well, it was still possible that something more powerful was hidden in there, but... Harry really hoped it was not so – otherwise rescuing the girl that the drone he had been following had abducted would be much much harder.

Sending a note saying that he will continue investigating the base to "Leto"'s bridge, the young Potter began his preparations for storming in and saving that poor girl. And he wasn't going to use his cloak this time around: most of his spells could not be cast properly from underneath it, and there was a good chance that the drones could see right through it anyway. At least, it didn't look like there were too many of them patrolling the area... Sure, there were also those at the filling stations, but they could not join the fray immediately and, thus, it was actually possible to take them out before they could actually be put on a war footing.

Using the Claw's ability to crunch the numbers really really fast, the green-eyed investigator calculated the areas where all of the drones would end up in the next few seconds. That done, he began preparing the most powerful offensive spell in his arsenal – the one capable of devastate large areas while also ignoring the Anti-Magic Fields that the drones had around them. Of course, such an attack had a huge drawback in the form of ridiculously-high energy requirements: without his Lost Logia there to rapidly replenish his mana, it would have been too impractical to use in actual combat.

"**Meteor Rain!**" Harry mouthed once the orbs generated by the spell finished charging up. These orbs then shot up towards the skies. And, once they gained the necessary altitude, they dispersed into a large number of small magical bullets that began raining upon the designated areas, exploding viciously when they came in contract with something solid...

Within a mere couple of seconds pretty much everything in the young Potter's sight was utterly devastated. And while that immediately alerted whoever was managing the base about an assault, it wasn't much of a problem for Harry – whatever lucky drones had survived the bombardment posed very little threat to him and could be dispatched easily, while their reinforcements would take some time to show up on the battlefield.

Getting into the base through a hole he had cut in the fence, the young Bureau agent swiftly moved across the open area to take cover against the nearest building's wall. Once there, he used his **Pulse Scan** spell to try and locate magical signatures close by – after all, it would make sense for the one in charge of this base to be a magic user... And there also was a high probability that the girl the drone had abducted would be somewhere there too.

Surprisingly enough, he got the results he was looking for on the very first attempt: there was a magic user inside there, in the basement of the next building, if he was reading the response correctly. On the second thought, it was almost as if there was another, weaker, signature just next to that one. Was that the base's manager's assistant? Or was it actually the abducted girl? The young Potter didn't know for sure, but what he knew was where he should storm next.

Quickly crossing the open area between the building, Harry found himself in front of heavy metal miter gates that were blocking his way. Switching his device to its Assault Form, he surrounded the physical blade with a magical one, making longer and much much sharper. Then he cut the gates apart. As the now-useless chunks of metal collapsed onto the ground, the green-eyed investigator found himself face to face with a group of drones that looked like type III on short spider legs. And these rust buckets definitely weren't there to greet him cordially...

Quickly moving to take cover behind the corner, the young Potter barely managed to avoid being gunned down by a massive barrage of projectiles that tore through the space he had been occupying a moment ago. Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down a little and to gather some mana for a counterattack – he still hasn't completely recovered from using his bombardment spell earlier – Harry summoned a few magical bullets of his own.

"**Solar Flare!**" He called out, releasing his attack, which then sped away from him. Then it made a one hundred eighty degrees turn and headed for the gate's aperture the young Potter was standing next to. There, entering the building through that passage, the bullets finally exploded as they hit the drones, destroying at least a couple of them, judging by the sounds... Summoning his magical shield, Harry then left his cover.

As soon as he reappeared in their field of view, the remaining drones began firing at him, but their attacks weren't powerful enough to break through his shield. Smiling a little to himself, the young Potter summoned a few more of his magical bullet, before blasting the tin cans standing in his way to bits. That taken care of, he finally entered the building...

A few corridors, a set of stairs and an ambush by a small group of gadget drones later, the green-eyed special investigator found himself standing just next to the doors leading into the chamber where those two magical signatures he had detected earlier were. Taking a few moments to catch his breath and put himself back in order – his appearance there would affect his human opponents more if he didn't look like he had just ran a marathon – Harry finally stepped into the chamber.

It was a room the size of a school assembly hall with various metalwork equipment against the entire left wall and a computer terminal next to it against the far wall. On the opposite side, there was a number of gadget drones, mostly type III, that were partially disassembled and connected to assorted machinery. And in the very center of this chamber, obviously waiting for his arrival, there stood the manager of this base. He was a short and rather plump man in a blue suit with a somewhat-dirty lab coat thrown over it. He had disheveled graying hair and a small beard and small beetle-like black eyes, one of which was hidden behind a miniature display constantly flashing with various data. In front of him there were five type I gadget drones and behind him there was a type III that was holding the abducted girl – who, actually, looked familiar for some reason – awning by her hands with its mechanical tentacle-like appendages.

"And here comes our guest from the Bureau." The man said almost casually. "You know, now that you've come this far, I absolutely can't let you leave. But I'm not heartless. I know you want to save this girl." He nodded towards the girl in type III's grasp. "So... How about we make a small deal? I will let her go if you deactivate and surrender your device."

Harry, though, knew better than to trust him. If he surrendered his device, he himself would be captured and, possibly, even killed. And then there also were no guarantees that the girl will be given a chance to leave safely. If the master of the base had gone through all the troubles to bring her here, there must be something about her that was of great interest to him...

"Let me help you make the right decision, an agent of the Bureau." The man continued, seeing as the young investigator wasn't doing what he wanted him to do. "If you don't do as I say, I will kill this girl. She can be studied even if she is dead..." That was the confirmation of the green-eyed teen's suspicions: this man would not let the girl – a witch, since she had some magic in her – he had captured go no matter what. "I'm waiting..."

Gritting his teeth, Harry began slowly deactivating his device, doing so in a way that would let him bring it back to operational as quickly as possible, should his opponent decide to attack. At the same time, he was desperately trying to think up a way that would let both himself and the girl leave this place in one piece. If only there was a way to make the gadget drone let go of her... Then it suddenly hit him: there was a way! The drone's tentacle-like appendages were wrapped quite loosely around the young witch's hands. A sudden movement downwards would free her, but there was a good chance that it would dislocate her shoulder as well...

"_Can you hear me, miss?_" Harry asked the telepathically – the AMF here wasn't powerful enough to block this way of communication... A moment she raised her head and looked around the room, obviously trying to locate the source of that message. "_Good._" The young Potter continued. "_This man will not let you go willingly no matter what I do, but I can still free you. Unfortunately, there is a good chance that you will still get hurt. If you are okay with that and want me to save you, please, give me nod._" A few seconds, during which the green-eyed investigator had to return his device to its standby form in order to appease the mad scientist in charge of this base, passed before the girl gave a slow, uncertain nod.

Nodding back, Harry took his device off his hand and using it as a small shield to hide the spell matrix he was creating from his opponent's view, began slowly bending to allegedly place his device on the concrete floor. Allegedly.

"**Dimensional Transfer!**" He called out the moment 'Claw touched the ground. Since he was making a very short teleportation – just under fifty yards – there was no need for complex calculations and, thus, it was possible to cast this spell properly even without a device's assistance... In a flash of light, Harry reappeared above the girl, using his fall to wrest her out of the drone's grasp.

"Gah!" The dark-haired witch cried out in pain, and it looked her right shoulder indeed got dislocated by this stunt, but at least she was now free.

"**Greater Aegis!**" The young Potter intoned next, summoning two shields, one to ward off the type I attacks and the other to bast the type III away with. Once the big drone was far enough, the green-eyed special investigator erected a barrier around himself and the girl. "Are you alright?" He asked her then. She didn't say anything, but her sobs and the tears in her eyes told him everything he needed to know right now... Finally placing his device back onto his hind, Harry added the **Physical Heal** spell to his **Aegis Barrier**. "Sorry, I'm quite bad when it comes to healing magics, but at least this should numb your pain. When we get out of this mess, I will have you fixed properly." He promised to the girl.

"You bastard! How dare you?!.." The managed of the base howled angrily. "Rip them apart! Kill them both!" He ordered the drones, even the ones that were seemingly disassembled, to attack. Harry wasn't going to let that happen, though.

"Phoenix Claw, set up!" He commanded, switching his device to its Active Form and manifesting his barrier jacket. And even though she was still in pain, the pretty witch next to him was certainly awestruck by the sight of his dark-blue and silver armor appearing on him. "Cartridge load." Was his next command. "Switch to Assault form and deploy **Hardlight Blade**." There was a sound of an empty casing being ejected from the loader, and a moment later a three feet long glowing white blade appeared on the young Potter's gauntlet. That, coupled with his mana cloak complete with wings, made him look like a warrior angel that descended from heavens to protect the innocents in the dark-haired girl's eyes... If only she knew that she wasn't the first one to make that comparison – Harry actually had 'the Archangel' as his moniker!

Wasting no more time, the green-eyed special investigator blasted the type III drone behind him to bits with a **Solar Flare** bullet. A few more moments later, the same fate befell the five type I that stupidly tried to attack him head on. With those drones turned into scrap metal, only the incomplete ones remained. And while they lacked in defense, being stripped out of their armor, at least a couple of them had outstanding armaments. Including mass weapons!

Against a normal Mid-Childan mage or a Belkan knight, those would be definite hero killers, but Harry's unique shield worked quite well against physical attacks, so, if he could see those attack coming, the light machine guns were rather useless against him. And since he could return fire even with his shields up, those drone too didn't last long...

Seeing as him mechanical army was losing the fight, the mad scientist look-alike that was the manager of the base tried to flee. But before he could leave the hall, his path was partitioned off by a wall made from whitish semi-transparent spikes growing out of the floor – a bastardized version of guardian beast Zafira's **Hagane no Kubiki** technique that Harry called **Diamond Teeth**.

"A-a-a, I won't let you escape." The young Potter said, causing the man's anger to spike once again. Instead of trying to break through that wall or even trying to attack the TSAB agent himself, though, the base manager merely clapped his hands together. A moment later, a wall on the opposite side of the hall opened, revealing an unlit secret passage.

"You might be able to wreck my little toys, but the might of Belkan Empire will crush you!" The man taunted. That made the green-eyed special investigator raise an eyebrow as it didn't look like anything was coming in through that passage.

Suddenly, quiet clacking reached his ears. That was the only warning Harry got before a huge scythe-like blade that was an 'arm' of a spider-like drone struck the spot he had been occupying a moment ago. Without any warning another such drone materialized out of thin air behind his back and too tried to impale the green-eyed teen with it's bladed appendage. And this time the young Potter, having no time to move away, was forced to block the blade with his **Lesser Aegis** shield.

And just when he was about to push the strange spider-like drone away from himself, a third one made itself known. Unlike the other two, though, it looked more ...well, complete. It was almost as if the other two had been reverse-engineered from this one. But that didn't matter in the end, as it too was there to kill him – it was pure luck on Harry's side that he had been fast enough to stop this drone's attack with his device's blade.

With a mighty roar, the young investigator exploded his mana cloak outwards, pushing the two gadget drones away from himself. ...That might have not been the wises idea, though, as the third one, the one that had attacked him first, decided to reveal that this class also had ranged weapons too. And even if Harry's breastplate had absorbed the most of the shot's energy, it still hurt like hell. What was even worse, the drones he had just pushed away decided to take advantage of his moment of weakness and closed in on him with intent of goring him to death with their bladed 'arms'.

Rolling to the side to avoid death by impalement, the green-eyed investigator cast a shield to ward off the few shots the drones had fired at him. Then he surrounded himself with his mana cloak again, before taking off – these drones didn't look like they could fly, and their ranged attacks were actually far less threatening than their preferred tactic of stabbing their enemies through the back with their scythe-like blades.

This, however, ended up backfiring on Harry as well: now that the strange spider-like drones could no longer attack him in melee, they just turned invisible and vanished from his sight. And while he had no way of confirming it, he had a feeling that they would now go after the pretty witch currently 'trapped' within the barrier he had created for her at the beginning of this fight. And since that barrier would be weakened by ambient AMF by now, it would not hold them off for long...

"**Starfall Shooter!**" The young Potter called out, summoning a huge number of small magical bullets. While individually those were underpowered and wouldn't really do a drone any hard, they weren't meant to anyway – even if the drones had turned invisible, they haven't become immaterial, so these projectiles would still explode against them. And so, by raining those bullets onto the floor, Harry stood a good chance of finding out where those damn machines had disappeared to.

Indeed, he had quickly discovered that two of the drones had indeed gone after the hostage. But since he now knew where they were, he could attack them properly... Or not? Even much more powerful '**Solar Flare**' bullets didn't seem to do much damage to those drones. But, at least, that had ruined their invisibility generators, making it impossible for them to hide from him again.

With those two machines no longer having an advantage of surprise attack – or counterattack – the green-eyed investigator darted down upon one of them, landing on top of its body. Briefly summoning his shield to block a few shots from the third, still invisible, drone, Harry stabbed the one he was atop of with his **Hardlight Blade**. That seemed to do the trick, as the his 'prey' went dead after a few moments of struggling. Then it exploded violently, throwing the young Potter across the room with enough force to crack the plaster on the wall with him. And while his mana cloak had cushioned the impact greatly, Harry was sure that his back will be one big bruise for the next few days. ...Unless he got it fixed by a medic, of course.

His current injuries weren't his greatest concern at the moment, though. The two remaining drones coming at him were. And given the position he was in, the green-eyed special investigator could only use a shield to protect himself. What's more, none of his ranged spells that could be used indoors packed enough punch to damage these machines, meaning that his options of fighting back were greatly limited... Or were they?

"**Solar Flare!**" Harry mouthed, as he started firing at the ceiling, intent on collapsing a few tons of concrete onto the spider-like drones. After the eighth shot, a significant portion of the ceiling indeed crumbled, burying his two robotic enemies under the rubble. Alas, only one of them took enough damage from it to get destroyed. The other one, the 'super prototype', while definitely harmed, remained operational. And with all his other options gone – the remaining ceiling was above where the girl he was trying to save was – the young Potter had no choice to fight it in melee...

Which was far harder than it sounded: despite everything, the drone was still surprisingly agile and could keep the green-eyed investigator at a distance, preventing him from delivering a decisive blow. In the end, though, Lady Luck was on Harry's side and during yet another exchange of blows he managed to cut one of the drone's bladed arms off. And now that he had noticeably reduced the thing's offensive capabilities, the young Bureau agent began turning the tide of the battle in his favor...

Another minute or so of fighting later, the green-eyed Potter finally managed break through the drone's defenses and get close enough to it to stab the glowing 'eye' in the center of its head. Then, he immediately jumped back as far as he could, not intent on letting the machine take him with it with an explosive charge activated upon its destruction...

Letting out a tired breath – all this fighting had taken a huge toll on him – Harry turned his attention to the mad scientist that was the manager of this base. The man, clearly frightened by being trapped in a room with someone capable of wrecking his army of gadget drones, was desperately trying to claw his way through the wall of **Diamond Teeth**. But those mana constructs were just too tough for a low-rank mage like him to easily destroy them.

"I won't let you take me alive, government's dog!" The man shouted while leveling his cane-shaped device at the green-eyed investigator. He then fired a rather-basic Mid-Childan shooting spell, but Harry, despite being tired and wounded, was still too fast for such a simplistic attack to touch him... In a burst of speed, the young Potter appeared in front of the man and delivered a powerful punch to the side of his head, knocking him out cold.

Picking the now-unconscious man by his clothes, the green-eyed teen dragged him towards where the girl he was rescuing was sitting under his protective barrier.

"We're safe now, miss." He said. "Though, I'm afraid, I can't let you go home just yet. I should get you patched up properly and, since you've became a witness in re illegal weapon development – and abduction – you have to testify about the today's events." The young witch let out a nod of resigned agreement... There was a short pause, before Harry continued: "Also, how should I call you, miss?"

"I'm Daphne." The dark-haired girl replied. "Daphne Greengrass." This made the green-eyed special investigator raise an eyebrow: the name sounded really familiar to him... Could she be?..

"And were you, by any chance, among the students that started Hogwarts in 1991?" He asked then. The surprise written all over her face told him that he had guessed correctly here.

"B-But... How?.." Daphne asked. Instead of replying with words, Harry pulled a bang of his hair to the side, revealing the now-faint but still visible lightning-bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. "Potter?!" The Greengrass heiress shouted in shock. "You're _the_ Harry Potter?!" He gave a dithered smile in response.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	21. Between the old Classmates

The twenty first chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**Remilia - The Scarlet Moon**, **aznxa21**, **god of all**, **fellow**, **Shadowsmage**, **FateBurn**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Innortal**, **ultima-owner**, **Lerris**, **Penny is wise**, **Opinr**, **karthik9**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**celf**, yes and no. Read this chapter for some more details.  
**jgkitarel**, **Jose19**, I've answered your reviews via PM.  
**Impstar**, I think you will have to wait for that a little bit. This chapter barely deals with anyone but Harry and Daphne. Harry will meet some of his old friends (and not-so-friends) a bit later.  
**ShugoYuuki123**, Ginga and Subaru made their first appearance all the way back in chapter VIII. Some other StrikerS characters show up at the end of this chapter, though. Also, I've made an attempt of explaining, what the hell had happened to Lutecia's father here.  
**Exalted Demi-Soul**, flames will be used to cook my dinner.

*** AN**: You really shouldn't tempt Fate like that, Sein.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XX****I: Between the old classmates**

"B-But... How?.." Daphne asked. Instead of replying with words, Harry pulled a bang of his hair to the side, revealing the now-faint but still visible lightning-bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. "Potter?!" The Greengrass heiress shouted in shock. "You're _the_ Harry Potter?!"

"The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." The young special investigator said as he gave the pretty witch a dithered smile. "Here I am, in the flesh, standing before you." There was a pause, quite a long one, before Daphne spoke again:

"B-But... They... They've said that you became a squ-.. A squib!" She finally managed to say.

"And do I look like Magic is no more in me?" Harry replied with a shrug. "Anyhow, I don't think that these ruins are the best place for a serious convention. That, and I still need to get you patched up properly..." He then tried to stretch himself, only to wince in pain when his bruised back reminded him that injuries from being thrown into a concrete wall don't magically disappear by themselves. "Myself too, I suppose." He added.

"A-alright." Daphne agreed uneasily. Having being kidnapped earlier today, she was understandably cautious about following Potter anywhere, even if he was the one to free her. Not that she really had a choice here: she was his only witness for this case, whatever it was, even if she had been subdued and knocked unconscious quickly by that drone thingy, so it wasn't like he'd just let he go... That, and she indeed needed to have her arm fixed. His magic hadn't done much beyond dulling the pain.

"Okay." Harry replied, before raising his right hand, where his device was.

The exact nature of that thing was a little beyond Daphne's understanding: on one hand it definitely was channeling spells much like the wands she was used to. On the other hand, it looked more technological than anything she had ever seen in her life. Yet, it seemed to work just fine around magic, even if everyone at Hogwarts – and Beauxbaton and Durmstrang – knew that muggle technology was supposed to stop working in the areas saturated with magic.

Meanwhile, Harry had summoned what looked like a semi-transparent moving image, projected right into the air, depicting what looked like a semi-circular room with matted light-gray walls. Along the curved wall of this room, there were three pairs of workstations with men and women in deep-blue military uniforms doing ...well, something. And at the far end of the room there was a raised platform with another workstation, occupied by quite an intimidating man, who appeared to be the superior to everyone else there.

"Bridge, do you read me?" Harry asked. And, apparently, the people on the other 'end' could hear him. This was almost like a floo call without sticking your head in magical flames, Daphne thought.

"Yes, we do." One of the men from those six bridge bunnies said. "Weren't you supposed to give us the report on your progress half an hour ago?" He asked then.

"There was a couple of things that made it impossible for me to do just that." The young Potter replied. "Either way, I request a permission for transfer aboard of "Leto". And have someone to take the bastard that was the manager of Scaglietti's base to the brig on standby."

"Permission granted. You can transfer at any time you wish." The same man replied.

"Thank you..." The green-eyed teen said then. "Oh, and do tell Aoko-sensei that we are in the need of her assistance. The fight down there had being quite rough."

"Consider it done." Was the reply the young Potter got. Thanking the man once more, Harry closed the communication channel, causing the holographic display to fade away as well. He then returned his attention to Daphne, speaking to her again:

"Before we go up there, there are a few things that I would like to ask from you." The Greengrass heiress let out a hum, telling him that she was listening. "First of all, it would be for the best if you don't mention being a witch before anyone you'll meet aboard of "Leto". I've kept the existence of magical community here a secret, and so should you."

"Huh?" The dark-haired pretty witch breathed out in surprise: she definitely hadn't expected a request like this. "But why? Aren't you magical too?" She asked then.

"Everyone up there is most definitely magical, yes." Harry confirmed. "But..." Here he made a pause, as he was looking for the right words for what he wanted to say next. "Should the Bureau learn about the existence of a wizarding world, they'll wish to make a contact. But since we live according to a different set of morals, a clash of philosophies will almost inevitably occur." There was a small pause, before the young Potter continued: "The likes of Malfoy are too xenophobic to accept anyone different from themselves. And with people like that being a major political force, I can't see a way of avoiding a meeting between them and whoever will end up as the Bureau's representative."

"I see..." Daphne said after a long silence. She herself might not be as radical a pure-blood as Draco or his father or their 'friends' from the circle of the Dark Lord's lieutenants were, but even she was having a lot of trouble accepting the things and magic she had witnessed today. And, if Potter here was any indication, this Bureau – whatever it was – had the power forcefully converting them their own morals and values, should they desire to do so. Yet, like many other pure-bloods, the Greengrass heiress was too comfortable with her current ways of life to desire or accept any changes, be they bad or even good... If hiding her magic from those people would ensure that no one will try to change her life through force, she will keep her mouth shut.

"On the same note..." Harry continued. "I want you to make a vow to never disclose the details of today's events to anyone without an explicit permission from me, or another Bureau's officer." He said.

"B-But..." Daphne tried to protest. "How I'm going to explain why I'm so late home to my parents?" Otherwise, she was actually quite alright with that as she did owe Potter for being saved from the clutches of the man that administered that base – he wanted to turn her into a lab rat, for Merlin's sake!

"You can, of course, say that a criminal on the loose had taken you a hostage. And that after you were rescued, you had to give evidence to the investigation. Just don't ever mention that the criminal was a magic user from another world, okay?" Well, if this was so, the request actually sounded reasonable. Especially since Daphne could just see the panic that the news about the existence of magic users so different from wizards and witches would cause among the rulers and general population of the magical Britain. Everything was already bad enough without that adding to the pile, no thanks to the Dark Lord and the terror his Death Eaters were spreading.

"Fine." She said. "I'll make the oath you want." Potter then made sure that there were no loopholes in the wording of her – something that had actually pleasantly surprised the Greengrass heiress, who couldn't really stand the people who were too trustful for their own good...

"Alright... Let's get going?" Harry asked, once the oath was out of the way. Upon Daphne's nod, a large glowing white runic circle that looked like three eight-pointed stars place one within another appeared under their feet. This circle also included the still-unconscious mad scientist, who had been the manager of the Scaglietti's base, of course. "**Dimensional Transfer!**" The young Potter called out, and in a flash they were gone from the surface of the Earth.

* * *

"Welcome aboard the Bureau's investigatory vessel "Leto"." Harry commented as they faded back into the existence. Too bad, one see only matted light-gray walls from within the transportation chamber... The sight of one's home planet somewhere far away in the blackness of regular space would have been, without any doubts, much much more impressive.

Daphne's attention was then drawn to a pair of petty officers, who saluted to Harry, before picking up the criminal of the mad scientist that he had captured, before dragging him away to somewhere. She might not be exactly knowledgeable about military, but even she knew that barring some special circumstances, it was always the lower ranks that saluted first. Apparently, Potter was pretty high up in hierarchy in this Bureau...

And just as soon as they disappeared behind a corner, another person made an appearance. This time, however, it was a rather petite woman in her mid-thirties with flaming-crimson hair made into two tight buns on the sides of her head. Like pretty much everyone else, she wore that deep-blue uniform, though, with a addition of a white lab coat thrown over it. Once Harry and this woman exchanged a less formal greeting, she turned to addressed Daphne:

"I'm warrant officer Aoko Hoshido, the medic and science officer of this vessel." She said. "And seeing as _someone_..." Here she shot an annoyed glance at the young Potter, who just smiled sheepishly in response. "...brought you here in such a condition, I'm going to fix you. Don't worry, I'll have you as good as new before you know it. Follow me." She said, before turning on her heels and walking out of the chamber with Harry just a couple of steps behind her... Letting out a sigh, the Greengrass heiress hurried after the two of them.

A short walk later, the three of them entered the red-haired woman's office, which also doubled as the medical bay aboard the investigatory vessel "Leto". And, as the dark-haired witch quickly noticed, it looked absolutely nothing like the hospital wing back at Hogwarts or a ward at the St. Mungo's hospital. Everything in there looked so technological that the dark-haired witch had troubles believing that it actually worked on magic, despite Harry insisting that it indeed was so.

Daphne's doubts, though, disappeared like snowflakes in firestorm when doctor Hoshido began fixing her arm: once the red-haired woman made sure that all bones were where they were supposed to be, she soothed and healed the abused tissues around with a healing spell that made her hands glow with pale green light. It actually was more of less the same spell that Potter himself used on her back at the base, but in a significantly more potent form... Either way, within two minutes the Greengrass heiress was as good as new, and it was now the time for Harry to get fixed.

And as doctor Hoshido worked on healing his back, Daphne couldn't help but notice that underneath his uniform, he was quite well-muscled – something that came as a small surprise to the dark-haired girl as Harry used to be a scrawny kid back when he was still a proper wizard and attended Hogwarts. What's more, having watched him fight, the Greengrass heiress knew that, unlike how it was with a few of her housemates, his muscles weren't just for show... Shaking her head to banish the unnecessary thoughts, Daphne waited rather impatiently for the red-haired woman to finish healing Potter.

"Alright, all done." Aoko said after what felt like hours for the dark-haired witch.

"Thank you, sensei." Harry replied as he put his uniform back on. "Now, if you don't mind, it's about time I started doing my job." When doctor Hoshido nodded, he turned to face Daphne and asked: "Let's go?" It was now the time for her to testify about the events that took place earlier today. And knowing that the sooner she was done with it, the sooner she will be allowed to return home, the young witch nodded in response.

As the two of them left the red-haired doctor's office and headed – presumably – to Harry's own one, the Greengrass heiress decided to finally the question that was bothering for the last ten or so minutes. Namely, how come the vessel she was aboard of experienced absolutely no roll. The weather back in Lancastershire, while nice, was too windy for anything short of Titanic-sized ship to be this stable. Actually, even something that big would rock a little on the waves, but "Leto" didn't. Was it staying in a dry dock or something?

"Potter... Harry, can you tell me, where are we?" Daphne asked. "And I don't mean, the name of the ship we're aboard of. I mean... where on the Earth are we?" The smile the young mage gave her, though, was putting her on guard. It was too mischievous...

"Nowhere." Harry replied casually. "We're in space, roughly thirty seven thousands kilometers above the surface of the Earth." His response was a clear disbelief on the dark-haired girl's face... Letting out a quiet sigh, he took a turn and began walking towards "Leto"'s wardroom that was located right under the bridge. "Come." He said, motioning the Greengrass heiress to follow him.

Not a minute later, the two of them stepped into the wardroom, and Daphne's attention was immediately drawn to the huge panoramic window, through which she could see faraway Earth in the cold dark emptiness of space; the western Europe was already swallowed by the twilight of the approaching night with major cities looking like nothing more than yellowish-while dots, while the world to the west was still illuminated by the Sun...

"Oh my..." Daphne breathed out. Looking at her own home planet and seeing it like this was an unbelievable experience. And then, suddenly, she realized that when Harry said magic users from different worlds, he meant it literally. Thus, his desire to keep today's incident a secret was making much more sense to her now: the news about the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life would cause a much greater panic than the news about a different kind of magic ever could...

"You believe me now?" Harry asked. The black-haired witch, still to awestruck by what she was seeing, merely nodded in response. "Let's go then – the sooner I have you testify about today's events, the sooner you will be allowed to return home." And, after a second-long pause, he added: "And, if you want, I can arrange for a print of such an image to be made for you." Letting out an unintelligible murmur of agreement, the Greengrass heiress allowed herself to be led off the spaceship's wardroom and towards what was Harry's office.

After a minute, the two of them ended up in the "Leto"'s briefing hall: a large but pretty narrow room with a long table able to fit at least twenty men in its center,.. Having offered Daphne a seat, the green-eyed Potter took a chair across the table from her. He then summoned a holographic display showing an empty page, and a similarly-holographic keyboard.

"Now then, shall we begin?" Harry said. He was about to say something more, but was interrupted by a distant sound of explosion. Jumping out of his seat, he raced to the door leading out of the room, but stopped just as he stepped through it. For a couple dozens of seconds, he just stood there, as if having a telepathic conversation with someone. Finally, he shook his head while letting out a small sigh, before turning around and walking back to his seat at the table.

"What happened?" The dark-haired witch asked then.

"The guy I've captured woke up and decided that the secrets of his benefactor were worth more than his life, so he detonated an explosive implanted in his head... Thankfully, the vessel is undamaged and neither of the two privates that were guarding him got harmed seriously. They will deal with it without me." The young Potter explained the situation. "Alright then, back to our business..." And so he began taking Daphne's deposition regarding the events that took place earlier today...

* * *

With the drone tinkerer no longer available for questioning due to his rather messy self-inflicted death, Daphne became the only living person who had seen even a glimpse of that Scaglietti-sponsored research facility operating more or less normally. Thus, she ended up being bombarded with question after question by Harry, who tried his best to get as accurate a picture of what had been going on in that base before his attack as was possible.

By the time the young investigator finally ran of question to ask, it was already close to midnight by Greenwich Time. Yet, he was barely able to reconstruct the happenings in the 'main chamber' at the time when Daphne had woken up. Everything transpiring outside of that hall remained a complete mystery to him since the dark-haired witch hadn't actually seen any of it... He was still quite satisfied with the results he got, though.

"Thank you a lot for the information you shared, Ms. Greengrass. It will help the investigation a lot." Harry said as he dismissed the holographic display and keyboard he had been using to write the young witch's testimony down. "Do you want some supper, or shall I send you home straight away?" The dark-haired girl thought about it for a few moments, before making a decision.

"I'd like some tea, please." The green-eyed investigator nodded in response.

"Sure. Let's move to the mess then." He said then, prompting the Greengrass heiress to follow him out of the room they were in at the moment. Which she did. ...And as the two of them were walking down the corridor towards the mess hall, Harry spoke again: "Mind if I ask you a few more questions, the ones completely unrelated to the today's events?"

"Only if you give me some answers as well." The young witch said with a sly smile. "Information does have its price, after all, Potter, and there are many things that I'd like to know."

"You're such a snake, Daphne." The green-eyed special investigator responded with a small sigh, though it was clear that he was actually enjoying this little game.

"I'll take that as a compliment." She replied. "Either way, mind if I go first?" Not really waiting for him to say anything, she continued: "No? Then, maybe you can explain me, what this Bureau you're working for nowadays actually is?"

"Well... First of all, the 'Bureau' is just a shortening for the 'Time-Space Administrative Bureau'. But since it is so well-known out there, no one really bothers to use the full name outside of the official documents and such. As for what it is..." Here, Harry paused for a few seconds, trying to come up with the best analogy. "Have you ever heard about 'United Nations' organization?"

"I have heard about it." Daphne said with a nod. While mostly neutral, her family still played on the political arena, thus she did hear a few things here and there about various forces of the world. "It's muggle's analogue for the ICW, I think."

"Well, more or less." Harry replied. "The Bureau is similar to that, but on a much larger scale. At the moment it has eighty six member worlds, and over a hundred and fifty non-administered worlds that are monitored. Out of those, twelve have a good chance of 'ranking up' into administered worlds within this decade. Furthermore, there is a number of worlds without native populations that are used by the Bureau for various purposes."

"Wow!.." Daphne breathed out. She had troubles imagining the life merely on the other side of the Earth, and this Bureau organization was spanning over a hundred worlds!.. The green-eyed Potter, however, wasn't done with the explanation just yet:

"Unlike, United Nations here on Earth, however, the Bureau does have actual authority over the member worlds, instead of being limited to just giving recommendations. And, administered worlds also don't have their own armed forces: those are assimilated into the united army that does protection and peacekeeping for everyone. Last but not least, the Bureau also includes the branches like Rescue and Wildlife Preservation Corps." He finished, before taking a step into the kitchens to get some tea and snacks for himself and Daphne.

"I see..." The Greengrass heiress said. "Thanks." She said then, accepting a cup of tea from him. "So..." She continued, after taking a sip. "What did you want to ask me about?"

"Well, it's been three years since I've so abruptly left the Earth... What has happened to everyone since then?" The green-eyed Potter asked.

"Should I translate that question as 'What has happened to my friends'?" Daphne specified.

"That too, but I wouldn't mind learning about the more global events that took place in these past three years." The young Bureau agent clarified.

"Alright then." The Greengrass heiress said with a nod. "Since I'm not sure when exactly you've departed, I'll ask this first: have you heard about Sirius Black breaking free from the Azkaban prison?" Harry paused to think about it. Back then his magic acting up was by far more important to him, so he wasn't paying much attention to anything other than that. Still, he could fuzzily recall Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge saying something about that when they met in front of the 'Leaky Cauldron'.

"I think I did." He said finally.

"Well, on Halloween, he sneaked into Hogwarts and tried to force his way into the Gryffindor common room. When the Fat Lady denied him entry, he cut her portrait up, before retreating. No one has any idea, why he did that as by then your disappearance was some very old news already. Either way, after that incident, the Ministry decided to post a few dozens of dementors around the school to prevent Black from attacking again. A week later, those abominations were sent back to Azkaban because they tried to suck souls out a pair of Ravenclaw firsties." Daphne narrated.

"That's terrible." The young Potter commented. He didn't really have a good idea what kind of a beast those dementors were, but anything that fed on the souls was automatically marked as the foulest abomination in his mind.

"Either way, no one has seen Black since then. Not that it stopped people from making the stories up. Ronald Weasley claims that he had bravely driven off a beast hound supposedly under Black's command that was trying to eat him whole. No one believes him, though..." After a pause that lasted for a few seconds, The Greengrass heiress continued: "The next major event had happened during the next summer: the Quidditch World Cup finals took place here, on the British soil. And some malefactors decided to give everyone a hump once the match was over. A group pretending to be the Death Eaters juggled some muggles in the air, while randomly firing curses into the campsite. They, however, fled the moment someone shot a very real Dark Mark – the Dark Lord's symbol – into the skies. Officially, the caster was a house elf, but everyone knows that it is one big cover up. No one from the first group was caught either." Harry let out an unintelligible sound, most likely meant to express his thoughts about the uselessness of the aurors.

"Something tells me that it was only the first incident among the many." He said after a few seconds.

"True, but everything in course – you wanted a history lesson, didn't you, Potter?" Upon his nod, the young witch continued: "During the next school year, the revived Triwizard Tournament took place at Hogwarts. And while the three tasks the schools' champions had to conquer were interesting, in my opinion, there were too few of them for an entire school year..."

"And what those tasks were?" The green-eyed investigator asked, curious about the tournament's tasks.

"Well, the first one was stealing a fake egg from a mother-dragon. Preferably without damaging the real eggs or taking any hits. The second one was rescuing a hostage from the bottom of the Black lake, and the third one was a maze choke-full of magical traps and beasts. That maze was also rearranging itself once in a while. And some say that the Yule Ball was an unofficial fourth task. Either way, the ball was fantastic!" Daphne told him.

"Sounds interesting." Harry commented. "I wouldn't have minded going through those myself, but I've been seriously busy at that time, especially around that Christmas." A small pause later, he asked: "I take it, not everything went smoothly with this tournament?"

"Actually, no, the tournament went without a hitch." The Greengrass heiress replied. "But a few days after the Yule Ball, there was an attempt to assassinate Dumbledore by one of the Dark Lord's lieutenants. The attack, however, failed, and the headmaster is still with us." Here she made a pause to take a big sip of tea, before continuing recounting the events. "...And it appears that around the same time, the Dark Lord had somehow managed to bring himself back form the dead."

"Is something like that even possible?" Harry wondered out aloud. Bringing someone not quite dead back to life was one thing, and it was done once in a while; but a complete resurrection was stated to be outright impossible within either Mid-Childan or Belkan magic systems... Then, suddenly, it occurred to him that Daphne might actually be a supporter of the Dark Lord Voldemort. "And... What is your stance on the matter?" He asked carefully.

"The Greengrass family, myself included, of course, is a neutral family. And so, while we live almost entirely on the magical side of the world, we don't really have any problems with muggles or muggleborns. Merlin, I was returning home from shopping in a muggle village when that drone thingy abducted me!" The dark-haired witch replied. "For us, the life was better when the Dark Lord was dead, as we now have to thread around carefully, lest we get branded as blood-traitors by the Dark Lord and put up for slaughter."

"So, you won't sell me out to him, will you?" He asked then.

"No, I have no intentions of doing that." Daphne confirmed. "And because I owe you a debt for saving me earlier today, Magic would make it impossible for me to do that, even if I wanted to, until this debt is cleared or paid off."

"I see..." The young Potter breathed out. There was a small pause, before he added: "I hope you won't be terribly offended if I don't clear this debt just yet? While the chances of me returning to this world are actually rather slim, it would be nice to have someone I can rely on there in case that does happen."

"It looks like this Bureau made you think more like a Slytherin..." The Greengrass heiress commented. "I might just forgive you for not setting me free from the shackles of the debt."

"Of course, your highness." Harry replied with a mock bow. Then he continued more seriously: "Now, shall we continue our small history lesson?"

"Alright." Daphne said. "Where were we? Ah, yes, the revival of the Dark Lord... It is not known for sure when that actually happened, and he didn't come out into the open until this last Christmas, when he and his followers launched an attack on the Diagon Alley. The aurors, however, arrived quickly and, thanks to the advanced training they had undergone on Dumbledore's proposition, were able to drive them back before the too many had been severely wounded or killed... And ever since then, I doubt there was a week without the Death Eaters making an attack something or a clash between them and the aurors occurring. Despite that, there were only so many known causalities in this conflict so far."

"That is still terrible." Harry said, receiving a nod of agreement from the Greengrass heiress. This was followed by a long and uncomfortable period silence. "And what had happened to my friends in these three years? Are they alright?" The young Potter asked finally.

"I don't know much, but there are a few things that I can tell you." The dark-haired witch replied. "After you answer a question of my own." Information did have a price, after all.

"And what do you want me to tell you?" Harry asked. Then he glanced at the clock. "Also, as comfortable as we're here, let's get moving, your parents must be beside themselves with worry. We can talk while we're walking there."

"Okay." Daphne replied. "Well, that thing you're using to cast magic, a device, what's it? It seems to be so different from wands I'm used to. And, also, you mentioned being involved in something that took place on Christmas two years ago. Was it something interesting?" The green-eyed special investigator let out a hum.

"You can say that. But 'terrifying' might be a more appropriate word, though. Without going into the details, I was sent on a mission that was clearly well beyond my level back then. Even as I am right now, I'm not sure I'd have managed to make it though without divine protection or something like that." There was a pause before he continued. "As for the devices... They are actually a support tool for casting – extremely useful, but not required. Our magic requires a lot of calculations to construct spell matrices, and the devices, being powerful magitek computers, are very good at crunching numbers. Devices also manage the flow of magical energy during the spell casting."

"So, you can use your magic even wandless?" Daphne asked then. "I mean,.. Without a device." She hastily corrected herself.

"Well, I indeed can cast my spells without any assistance from my device, but the more complex ones will take too much time to set up to be truly useful, if I have to do all of the calculations in my mind." Harry confirmed. "On the other side, if a device is supplied with necessary power, it will be able to 'cast' the spells pre-programmed into it. This is how all of the systems aboard this very ship work, for example." He added then.

"I see..." Daphne said. "And can I have a look at the math behind your spells? I might not be a spell-crafted, but I did ace Arithmancy OWLs, so I know some basic things about how my magic works. It would interesting to make comparison." With a shrug, he summoned a holographic display with a quite a few complex formulas on it, before making it float in front of the dark-haired girl.

"This is a rather simple spell that is essentially a magical equivalent of a flashbang grenade. In other words, when used, it creates a powerful flash of light. Pretty useful against living opponents, but it has very negligible effect on automatons like gadget drones." He said.

"...It seems that our magics do work quite differently." Daphne said after a long pause. Well, that indeed was the case, but beyond that, she'd never confide in not understanding all of the formulas she was seeing. Especially since, based on its description, the spell was a relatively simple one. With another shrug, the young Potter dismissed the display.

"Alright." He said as the two of them stepped into the transportation chamber. "Let's jump back to the Earth and finally ease your parents' worries." Upon the pretty witch's nod, he called his magic forth, preparing the transportation spell. "**Dimensional Transfer!**" And in a flash of light they disappeared from aboard of "Leto", reappearing on the outskirts of the Capernwray village a moment later.

"Are you going to escort me all the way back to my home?" Daphne asked.

"Yes." Harry replied with a nod. "It'd be better if I'll be the one to explain this whole mess to your parents. They are more likely to take my words at the face value, because I will be acting in my official capacity of an investigator." He said, nodding towards the insignia on his uniform. While definitely not something used by either mundane or magical people of Great Britain, they still looked damn impressive. "Plus." He added then. "You still owe me the stories of what had happened to my friends in the last three years."

"True." Daphne agreed, as she began leading him towards the manor owned by the Greengrass family. "Alright then. First of all, I shall warn you that I don't know much about their lives – they aren't even my acquaintances, so I had no reasons to keep tabs on them." The green-eyed special investigator nodded, prompting her to continue: "Well then... I don't know, whether you'll be surprised to hear that, but Granger and Weasley couldn't maintain their friendship without you. In fact, their break up happened not even two weeks into the school year, the third one, I mean. It was quite messy too, based on the rumors that had reached our dungeon." There was a pause, before Daphne added: "And, for whatever reason, Granger seemed to be angry with you too."

"Uh... Well..." Harry began his 'confession'. "Let's say, I didn't leave her a proper parting gift... I had nothing appropriate on my hands, and a thought of buying something hadn't crossed my mind. In my, admittedly weak, defense, I wasn't really thinking straight back then: my old life had been shattered and the new one was still very very hazy... When I realized what I've done, it was just too late to try and fix anything..." Daphne huffed.

"So, you did offend her after all." She continued. "Well, regardless, following that breakup, Granger's relationship with her classmates too began deteriorating. That is not to say that Weasley was doing much better. Just because you've left your broomstick with him, he began thinking himself to be an important man he was not. And it started getting on people's nerves after a while." A short pause later, the Greengrass heiress continued: "Either way, Wealsey's ridiculous stories about fending demonic hounds aside, nothing else really interesting had happened during the third year."

"I take it, that changed come the next year?" The young Potter asked.

"Of course, it was the year when the Triwizard Tournament was taking place at our school. Something was bound to happen sooner or later." The dark-haired witch responded. Her companion let out a hum, 'telling' her to continue: "Well, like many, Weasley tried to enter himself into the tournament, even if our headmaster placed a line that only those of age could cross around the ...registration point. He failed, of course, and the fallout of his attempt was quite interesting, though it did nothing to increase Weasley's popularity."

"By the way, you've never told me, which three schools were a part of the Triwizard tournament, and who represented them." Harry said. "Also, who won?"

"Oh, right. Sorry." Daphne replied almost instantly. "The three schools participating in the tournament were Durmstrang Institute, represented by an international quidditch star Victor Krum; Beauxbaton academy, whose champion was a part veela girl named Fleur Delacour; and, of course, Hogwarts. Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff was representing us. He also managed to win the tournament, though Krum came very close to beating him... Either way, we're talking about what had happened to your friends now." Here she made a small pause, before continuing: "No major events that I know of had happened to them until the Yuletide. I'm not sure how that had happened, but Granger became Krum's date for the ball. And, let's say, some of the reactions to that were quite extreme. Weasley had also distinguished himself there, and not just by being one of the few stags."

"Mhm..." Harry hummed, recalling his redheaded friend's tendency to insert his foot into his mouth at the worst possible moments.

"At the end of the night, he confronted Granger and openly yelled at her, calling her a traitor and quite a few other words I do not wish to repeat. It earned him two whole months of detentions from professor McGonagall and he almost ended up in a duel against the Durmstrang champion, who wanted to defend his date's honor. As for Granger herself..." Making a small pause, the Greengrass heiress continued: "She ran away crying that night, and she wasn't quite the same ever since then."

"Oh my..." Harry said with a sigh. No, he knew that Ron and Hermione didn't really mesh together well, but this... "They never made up, did they?" He asked even if he could easily guess the answer.

"No." Daphne replied, shaking her head. "And it got even worse after the second task, where Granger played a 'hostage' Krum needed to rescue, and the Durmstrang champion almost won the task... Within a week of that incident, Granger left the castle as she transferred out of Hogwarts. Only the professors know, which school she had joined, but they are holding their tongues."

Had he really been friends with someone like that? Harry wondered to himself. Well, Ronald had always seen the world in black and white, but this sounded almost too extreme even for him, but... Now that he thought about it a little, the youngest male Weasley had been a jerk towards Hermione before the troll incident. He wasn't all to her nice afterwards too, so it was possible that Daphne wasn't lying here. Oh damn it,..

"At least tell me that he got his bitters." The green-eyed investigator asked.

"McGonagall was furious with him, and so were his parent, when they learned what he had done. I think his mother berating him was heard all around the castle that day. Oh, and Krum actually got the duel he itched for since the Yule ball." Daphne didn't even see the need to elaborate, who won. Then again, what were the chances of an average and unmotivated fourth year winning against someone who was more powerful, more knowledgeable and more experienced then him?

Having heard that Ronald had been less than a gentleman in the past, Harry wasn't even sure he wanted to know what had happened to him during the fifth year. Meanwhile, since Hermione wasn't attending Hogwarts anymore, the Daphne wasn't likely to know how the bushy-haired girl was doing, so asking about that would likely be useless and just a waste of time...

"And what about the Gryffindor Flying Vixens? Or Neville?" The collective name Angelina, Alicia and Katie of the house's quidditch team had been branded with.

"Well,.." The Greengrass heiress began. "Neither the three Gryffindor chasers, nor Longbottom are of the kind that really attracts trouble or extreme luck to themselves. So, there was nothing about them on the rumor mill beyond the guesses about their love life."

"Then, they are doing well." Harry concluded.

"Probably." Daphne agreed as the two of them fell into silence. The young Potter was reflecting on what he had learned about happenings that had taken place on his home world in the past three years. Meanwhile, the pretty witch next to him was both looking forward to reuniting with her parents and her little sister – even if it was just half a day since she had seen them last, so many things had happened that it felt like they had been apart for days – while also hoping that the meeting between Potter and her father would go smoothly. Merlin knows, sometimes the man's overprotectiveness over her and Astoria did more bad that good... Oh well, at least it didn't look like she'd have to worry about that for long – she could already see the edge of the Greengrass properties...

**~/ *** \~**

A single finger covered by light-blue latex-like material breached the surface of a concrete wall almost as it if was some sort of a thick liquid instead. Then, a miniature camera of all things appeared on that finger, surveying the room. Once it was confirmed that the room was clear, the owner of the finger decided to make her entrance and stepped through the wall, like it wasn't a solid substance.

This teal-haired teal-eyed girl in a two-colored blue latex suit with silvery metal shoulder-pads looked around once again, making sure that the coast was indeed clear. Then she stuck her hand back through the wall, before pulling her sister – a much taller and more masculine violet-haired yellow-eyed young woman in a similar suit – into the room as well.

"Alright, Sein." The older of the two girls said. "You go look for the girl, I'll take care of whoever happens to be in there." Her younger, teal-haired, sister nodded.

"Roger that, Tre." She replied, probably a bit too enthusiastically and loud. Her voice, after all, alerted the owner of the apartment she and her sister had just infiltrated about their presence.

"Who's there?" A male voice came from another room. Then, there was a sound of someone getting of a sofa and quietly walking towards them... Tre sent a glare at Sein.

"Idiot." She mumbled, causing her teal-haired sister to smile sheepishly... Sighing at the younger girl's childish antics that have just made their mission more difficult, she summoned a faintly-glowing three-feet-long backwards-pointing energy blade from her left wrist. Then, picking a good moment, Tre jumped through the door and unleashed her magical blade upon the apartment's owner, beheading him before he could even react.

Tre then immediately switched to a defensive stance, ready to act, should there be more people around, but it turned out to be unnecessary: there were no more adults to oppose her and Sein. Thus, the two of them began looking for the child they were supposed to _collect_. And since the apartment they had invaded wasn't that big, before long the two of them were standing in front of little Lutecia's crib, looking at the little lavender-haired girl, who was soundly asleep, hugging a small cute cat-like plush toy to herself with her small and still chubby hands.

"She's so cute!" Sein observed, thankfully remembering to keep her voice down this time.

"Whatever." Tre replied, apparently completely unaffected by the charm little Lutecia was seemingly projecting at anyone looking at her. "Just collect her and let's get out. If we waste too much time, the Bureau might detect us." Nodding, her teal-haired sister gently picked the little girl out of her crib. "Are you taking that thing along too?" Tre asked then, nodding towards the plush their 'target' was still hugging to herself in her sleep.

"Why not?" Sein asked in whisper. "It's not like a toy can compromise us, right? And she will definitely need something to comfort her, what's with being in a new place and with her mother almost dead." The violet-haired young woman let a sigh, before shaking her head, apparently not really comprehending her younger sister's more compassionate nature.

"Fine, let's get out of here." She said. Nodding, Sein placed her hand on her shoulder and they walked out of the apartment through its wall. Their mission in Cranagan was accomplished.

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That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	22. A few meeetings

The twenty second chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**Jose19**, **Remilia - The Scarlet Moon**, I've answered your reviews via PMs.  
**M3E**, **Pedro52**, **moon so bright**, **karthik9**, **celf**, **god of all**, **Opinr**, **FateBurn**, **MWkillkenny84**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Ranmaleopard**, well... you see... That won't be a nice meeting when (if) it happens. Which will not be in this chapter...  
**ultima-owner**, and wasn't he like that in canon? At least for the first five or so books.  
**Lerris**, in the long term, maybe. But the immediate reaction (by the pure-blood supremacists) will almost definitely be something capable of causing a major conflict. And, let's say, it is for the better if such conflict is avoided.  
**Impstar**, the apartment in the last section of the XXI-st chapter was the Alpine residence on Cranagan. And it was the Numbers abducting Lutecia following the 'Combat Cyborg' incident where Zest and Quint were killed and Megane fell into coma. The next small arc will actually deal with that event directly - Harry and co will go on a quest to reclaim Megane and Luctecia.  
**FrostingFlames**,... Considering that Harry now thinks of Mid-Childa as his home... As for Hermione, yes, she will make a small appearance in this chapter.  
**jgkitarel**, you mean the one with Daphne's father? It is here.  
**ShugoYuuki123**, Lutecia's abduction happened offscreen in "Nanoha" canon as far as I know.

*** AN**: I'm really really sorry for the delay with the update, but the real life kept conspiring against me in the past few weeks. What's more, it looks like this is not the end yet, so it is highly likely that the chapter will take quite some time to write as well... Oh well...

Also, for all of the purists out there, the DVD technology was introduced to the market in 1995, while this chapter takes place in mid-to-late June 1996. Thus, while still rare, the players did exist at the time already.

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**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

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**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XX****II: A few meetings**

The Greengrass manor was a rather impressive two-story building with many large arching windows and brownish-red tegular roof. It located near the center of a large estate with its front facing a large open field while a looked-after forest almost hugged it from the back. Alas, Harry didn't get much of a chance to admire the picturesque house Daphne was living in, no thanks to the rather agitated lord of the said manor 'greeting' him.

"Get away from my daughter!" Lord Greengrass intoned coldly, before firing a pale-yellow curse at the green-eyed young man in brown pseudo-military uniform. Apparently, he trusted himself enough not to hurt Daphne who remained within an arm's reach of the said teen.

"**Greater Aegis!**" Harry whispered, swiftly summoning the eight-pointed pale-white star of his shield in front of him. A couple of moments later the curse splashed against it harmlessly. Truth to be said, Harry hadn't been entirely sure that his shield would work against wizarding magic, but it looked like it had no problems with those spells as well... "Now, now, is this the way people greet each other here nowadays?" He 'asked' nonchalantly, while dismissing his shield and raising his arms into the air to show both his investigator's badge and that he wasn't holding any (obvious) arms.

"Father!" The young witch responded almost instantly, sending the man a glare that clearly conveyed her displeasure with his actions.

"Anyway..." Harry continued as he tried to answer a question not yet asked by the lord Greengrass. "I'm the Bureau's third investigator division junior special investigator Harry James Potter,.." The middle-aged wizard, of course, recognized the name; his reaction to it was a bit funny, actually... "And, I'm afraid, I'm indeed a part of the reason why this young lady is returning home so late."

"What have you done to my daughter?!" Mr. Greengrass growled, apparently thinking that the green-eyed investigator was not exactly a man of high morals.

"May we step inside your manor first, please?" Harry asked in response. "I'm afraid, some of the information I'll have to share with you in order to explain the situation is quite sensitive. I'd rather it isn't overheard by anyone." The man was about to deny this request, but the glare his daughter was still sending his way made him reconsider.

"Very well." He said finally. "But it better be a good, or you will be talking to my wand, punk." He then turned around and headed inside the house. Daphne and Harry hurried after him. As soon as the two of them stepped through the doors, a woman who likely was the lady Greengrass all over Daphne, checking the girl for any signs of injury. Thankfully, Aoko-sensei has done a good job there and some dirt on her clothes were only reminders of the adventures that the girl had gone through earlier today...

Once lady Greengrass was done with her inspection, she and her husband led the two teenagers into the guest room. The two of them sat together on a sofa there; Harry took a seat on another one, across the tea table from them; while Daphne made a curtsy in an armchair to the side from them.

"Alright. Explain yourself, mister." The master of the manor pressed.

"For the sake of the lady over there..." He said, while nodding towards the lady Greengrass. "I shall introduce myself once more. I'm junior special investigator of the Bureau, Harry James Potter." Doing his best not to have his lips twitch upwards at the reaction the people here had upon learning his identity, he continued: "For the simplicity's sake, let's say that I'm something like a detective..."

"Not to be rude, but aren't you a bit too young for such a position?" Lady Greengrass asked then.

"The organization I work for believes that age is irrelevant, as long as one has mind, body and magical prowess required for the job they are applying to. I personally know people that are even younger than me, yet hold similar or higher positions,.. We're getting off-topic here, though." Lord Greengrass definitely agreed there.

"Yes, yes. Now explain why my daughter comes home so late and with her robes dirtied... And while you're at it, what is this 'Bureau' you are supposedly working for? I personally have never heard anything about an organization like that."

"I'd be quite surprised if you did. The Bureau normally operates outside of this region." The young Potter replied. "The Bureau itself is a paramilitary organization that handles defense, law enforcement, disaster relief and wildlife preservation over an array of locations." Here, he made a small pause, before continuing: "As for what has happened to Daphne here..."

"Yes, what has happened to my daughter?!" Mr. Greengrass asked commandingly.

"Well, long story short, she has been abducted by a criminal my colleagues and I have been chasing after for a while. This abduction, however, finally revealed the location of his base here, in Lancashire, and I was able to subdue him." Harry said. Taking a glance at the master and mistress of the manor, he could clearly see that they were far from happy about this... At least, Mr. Greengrass shifted his hate away from him, for now...

"And did it really take you so long to free my daughter?" He asked then.

"No, not really." The green-eyed mage replied. "Daphne also had to be healed a bit. Furthermore, since she is a valuable eye-witness to the actions of the criminal, she had to be questioned. And since the criminal himself chose to commit suicide in order to escape the interrogation, your daughter's questioning had been a bit more thorough than it would have been otherwise."

"Is that true?" Lord Greengrass asked Daphne then, silently cautioning her against lying to him.

"Yes, father." The young witch replied. Of course, Harry had omitted a few details in this rendition of today's events, but... Everything he did say was true.

"Very well." Her father said with a sigh then. After a short pause, he continued: "I believe I owe you an apology then, Mr. Potter. I mistook your actions for something far more unsavory."

"Apology accepted." The young investigator of the Bureau replied neutrally. "This concludes my business here. Please escort me off your property." He continued then. Of course, he could have teleported to "Leto" straight from this room, but that would be a very impolite thing to do...

"Of course." Lord Greengrass said as he stood up from his seat on the sofa and began walking out of the room. "Follow me, Mr. Potter."

**~/ *** \~**

The clean up crew from the Bureau finally arrived around the noon of the second day since the discovery and subsequent destruction of Scaglietti's base. And with that it was almost the time for "Leto" to head back to the headquarters. Still, she was scheduled to depart only in the early evening, meaning that, once he showed the clean up crew where the remains of the base were, Harry had a couple of hours on the Earth to himself.

And he already had some plans for this time. For one, he needed to send out a few letters to his friends living on this world. But seeing as they all were magical, he had to use the owl post services, something that he needed magical money to pay for. Thus, in order to send those letters, he had to visit the Gringotts bank in the Diagon Alley first...

Then there was this opportunity for him to give the Dursleys a little payback for the years he had spent suffering under their roof that Harry just couldn't pass by. He wasn't all evil, though, thus he had no plans in turning their lives into living hell. All he was going to do was showing up at their house and showing them all that he was doing well, holding quite a respectable position. Magic was going to be mentioned too, of course – it was the thing those muggles hated the most, after all.

Once he was finally done with his work up there in Lancashire, the young Potter made a jump to the outskirts of Little Whinging via the **Dimensional Transfer**. From there, he began treading his way to the _place_ he grew up in, the house number four on the Privet drive. His way there lay through a small local park, which looked like it had seen better days: the grass was getting yellow thanks to the drought and the few benches and a set of swings were damaged and 'ornamented' by the juvenile delinquents that existed in the neighborhood...

Speaking of which, a group of those despicable individuals was also present. And if Harry's eyes weren't deceiving him, the three of them were harassing some rather petite and scared middle school girl in a somewhat-secluded corner of the park. Not being someone who could just give something like that a go by, the young Potter decided to step in protecting the girl. And as he approached them, the green-eyed agent of the Bureau recognized those juvenile delinquents as his 'big-boned' cousin Dudley and his two friends, Piers and Gordon.

"What's going on here?" Harry asked loudly, as he pretended to be just a concerned stranger. Upon hearing him, the rat-like boy who went by the name of Piers Polkiss turned around to send him a death glare, while his two friends continued their attempts to make their victim part with her money.

"Mind your own business, fucker." He barked.

"On the contrary, this is quite my business." The green-eyed investigator replied calmly. That was true, even if his division never bothered with dealing with such petty crimes – that was the police's job. "Do let this young lady be, or I might just step in and force you to." Of course, since Harry wasn't exactly a big guy, nor did he look any older than them, he didn't appear to be especially threatening to the trio of juvenile delinquents. Which is why...

"I'd like to see you try! We'll show you your place!" Gordon, who decided to give Piers a helping hand in dealing with that annoyance in brown suit, shouted. Then, then two boys charged at the young Potter, hoping to overwhelm him with their numbers. Unfortunately for them, it wasn't quite enough: Harry was a trained soldier, not to mention that he wasn't above using his magic to make himself stronger and faster... In any case, both Piers and Gordon soon found themselves taking a nap on the ground.

"Why you!?" Dudley yelled as he saw his minions going down. In doing that, he also let the girl he and his friends had been harassing go – an opportunity to get away she didn't waste. "I'll make you pay for this!" He shouted as he threw himself at Harry blindly, probably thinking that being big and having a mean punch will be enough for him to overcome the smaller adversary. It wasn't: a strong palm strike to his back later, the youngest Dursley ended up lying face down on the ground next to his friends.

"Be nice with others, and they will be nice with you in return." The young Potter said instructively. That done, he continued on his way towards number four, Privet drive unhurriedly. Dudley, however, didn't agree with their confrontation being over already. So, getting back on his feet, he tried to attack Harry again, this time from behind. Not that it somehow yielded a different result: he once again ended up face down on the ground. "Didn't I just tell you that you should be nice with others, cousin?" Harry asked, adding a dramatic pause in the right place.

This caused Dudley to freeze up as his brain just couldn't process the revelation that the once weak 'freak' was now able to fight back and win... Well, whatever, the green-eyed mage wasn't interested in being sanctimonious with 'big-boned' cousin right now, so he just resumed walking towards his destination.

* * *

A few minutes and zero more incidents later, the young Potter finally arrived to number four, Privet Drive. It was a bit unfortunate that today was a weekday, meaning that uncle Vernon would be stuck in his office till evening, but that was okay with Harry: his aunt Petunia was enough of a target to satisfy his thirst for revenge... Anyhow, it was the time for him to act. Taking a deep breath to recompose himself, he knocked on the door.

"We're not buying anything. Get lost!" The green-eyed teen heard the unmistakable screeching of his aunt coming from inside the house. Scowling at her lack of hospitality, he nonetheless knocked on the door again, this time a bit harder. "I said, get lost!" Petunia Dursley shouted. Ignoring her, Harry continued knocking. Finally, his stubbornness bore fruit: he could hear his aunt grumbling as she made her way to the door to drive him away. "Are you deaf, bastard?! I told you, we're not buying any crap from you!" She yelled as she finally opened the door. "So, go to Hell!"

"Oh, but I'm not selling anything." The young Potter replied calmly as he swiftly moved his foot to make it impossible for the door to be closed. "I just dropped by to say hello, my dear aunt." There was a rather long pause as Petunia tried to process what she had just heard: having not heard a single thing about him in the past three years, she had gleefully assumed that the freak of her nephew was finally dead. Apparently, her hopes were misplaced.

"Get lost you ungrateful brat!" She shouted as she tried – and failed – to slam the door closed.

"Now, now, don't be like that, auntie." Harry replied as soothingly as he could make himself to. "Did I go through all the troubles to find an hour to pay you a visit for nothing? You know, my work is a very busy one." He said. Petunia let out a long sigh.

"Fine." She said unhappily, especially since she could see a few curious housewives watching the unfolding scene from the safety of their own houses. "Just get inside." And as the young Potter stepped into the house, she looked over him again. He certainly wasn't a scrawny freak he used to be anymore. And the brownish military-like uniform – with quite real shoulder straps no less – certainly looked quite good on him. What's more, this uniform was quite unlike anything she had seen the wand-waving freaks wear... Maybe she had been too hard on him? Maybe he had changed in these three years and no longer followed the freakish ways?

"Thank you." The green-eyed teen said as he looked around. And, aside from a TV being replaced with a newer model and a few new photos of Dudley joining the older ones on the walls, everything was just as he remembered it to be. Then again, the Dursleys were a _normal_ family, why would they suddenly change anything radically?

"So..." Aunt Petunia began after a long and rather uneasy pause. "Where have you been all this time?"

"Away." Harry replied cryptically. After all, there was no city named 'Cranagan' on the Earth, and he'd rather the administered worlds remain a secret from the locals for now... There was a pause, during which Mrs. Dursley tried to decide, whether she wanted more details or not. A few seconds later, she finally decided that she didn't care where her freaky nephew had moved away to. His uniform, on the other hand, was making her curious.

"And... Are some kind of a soldier now?" She asked finally.

"Kind of." The young Potter agreed with a nod. "Though my role might be a bit closer to that of a detective. And then the organization that I work for has disaster relief divisions too." Petunia nodded, mostly to herself upon hearing that. And while she did have some troubles believing that the freak of her nephew was allowed to take such a position, his shoulder straps did look like those of an officer. Or, at very least, were far more fancy that any privates ever had.

"It's nice to see that you've finally stepped on the path of a good man." She said.

"It pays nice too." Harry agreed. He was able to set aside quite some money during those two years he had been actively working for the Bureau. Granted, all of the pricier purchases – like his apartment, for example – had been sponsored by someone else, or had been paid for with the gold he had brought over from here, but, still...

Feeling that his surprisingly-civil conversation was quickly approaching its end, the green-eyed special investigator decided that it was about the time for the _great revelation_. And to stage it up, he had his device send a transfer request to "Leto". Of course, the permission was granted as no one was supposed to be using the transportation bay aboard the investigative vessel right now... Once his got the response from the bridge, the young Potter 'asked' his device to display a message about him running out of time, with the nearest hour mark acting as a 'deadline'.

The sudden manifestation of a holographic display definitely startled Mrs. Dursley. And that thing also was far from normal too – things like that existed only in science fiction and space operas for her. Yet, it looked technological enough not to trigger her allergy towards anything unnatural – well, anything magical – right away...

"Hm..." Harry hummed as he glanced on the display, pretending to be a little surprised by its sudden appearance as well. "It looks like getting there took me more time than I've expected. It's about the time for me to leave already." He said.

"You're leaving then?" His aunt asked.

"Yes." The young Potter replied. "And, most likely, it will be ages before I return to the British isles too." After making the display with the (fake) notification disappear, he continued, finally dropping the proverbial bomb: "A life of a **mage** like me is a very busy one, after all." He said then. "Alright, c'ya auntie. It was nice to have a chat with you." Standing up, he prepared the transportation spell, that manifested as a glowing runic circle under his feet. "**Dimensional Transfer!**" And in a flash of light he was gone, leaving dumbfounded Petunia behind. Of course, he wasn't leaving the Earth just yet – he still needed to buy the souvenirs for his friends on Mid-Childa as well as to send a couple of letters via owl post – but his aunt didn't need to know that...

As for Petunia herself, she was quite frozen as her mind couldn't quite process the fact that her nephew, despite being a man in a respectable position now, was still one of the freaks... And she had let him into her perfectly _normal_ house! And even had a civil conversation with him! That freakish bastard had clearly played her for a fool!

That was when her beloved Dudley, the bestest young man in the entire world, return home from having a tea with his friends in the neighborhood. Yet, for some reason, the front of his clothes was covered in dust and his face was red with anger.

"Mo-o-o-o-o-om!" He wailed. "The freak is back and he is being all bad!" The big-boned boy continued crying. "And he beat me up!" Petunia, however, was still too shocked by the revelation that the Potter brat was still so unnatural that she didn't even hear her son's shouting... Which only made his dramatics even worse...

**~/ *** \~**

With a tired sigh, Albus Dumbledore entered his office at Hogwarts: he was getting too old for these troublesome sessions of Wizengamot, what's with a good quarter of the lords there being supporters of the very Dark Lord Magical Britain was fighting against at the moment. And then there was that mountain of paperwork he had to work through for Hogwarts to run smoothly in the next school year...

Letting another sigh, the aged warlock dropped into his armchair and picked a lemon drop form a small bowl on his table – really, sometimes he felt like these candies were one of the few things he was still allowed to enjoy in his life. But, whatever, there were things he had to do, and putting them off to a later time would do no one any good. Thus, he reached for the stack of the papers he had to sign. As he did that, though, his eyes landed on the silvery instruments that once upon a time were used to monitor Happy Potter. Surprisingly enough, those things were operating right now, for the first time in three years – in other words, it meant that the Potter heir returned!

Not quite believing what he was seeing, Dumbledore reached for his wand and cast a few spell, but they all showed that, indeed, Harry was no longer in hiding and once again could be found somewhere on the British soil. Yet, the Hogwarts headmaster wasn't sure that these were the good news: as far as he knew, the young Potter was still incapable of casting spells properly and, thus, was totally defenseless against any wizard coming after him.

And making sure that Voldemort or his Death Eaters wouldn't be able to off the Boy-Who-Lived was important. Even if just to keep the morale of the Auror Corps and the Order of the Phoenix high... Thus, putting his paperwork off, Dumbledore used one more spell to determine the current location of the Boy-Who-Lived. Much to his surprise, it turned out that the young Potter was currently in London. In the Diagon Alley, to be even more precise.

Standing up from his armchair with another tired sigh, the Hogwarts headmaster walked up to a large fireplace that was there in his office. Reaching for a bowl on a nearby shelf, he got a got a pinch of floo powder from it.

"The Leaky Cauldron!" He announced his place he wanted to go to, before throwing the powder into the flames, causing them to turn emerald-green. Then, he stepped into these flames, letting them to carry him towards his destination...

**~/ *** \~**

All things considered, his meeting with the goblins went pretty well. Even if he was still considered underage and, thus, unable to fully manage the Potter estate. Hell, he couldn't even terminate his own trust vault... At least he was allowed to reseal it once he had withdrawn the moneys from it. Out of those, good five hundreds galleons had to be paid to the goblins for all of the troubles they had to go through to unseal and then seal his trust vault back.

As for the rest, Harry kept some galleons unchanged for some immediate expenditures, while converting the rest of the gold into some gems and precious metals that he could resell on Mid-Childa. Once his business with the Gringotts was concluded, the young Potter stepped out of the goblin-ran bank and headed down the Diagon Alley towards the Flourish and Blotts book store: he needed to buy a couple of good books for Hermione as a 'please forgive me' gift.

Of course, finding the books that would please his bushy-haired friend would not be so easy as by now she had likely read a good half of the tomes that were present in the store, but Harry was sure he will be able to find something good for her... And some shelf-browsing later, he indeed found a pair of nice reference books on the advanced magical theories, that would be useful both for someone still at school and for those who had already graduated. And, for whatever reason, those weren't even all that expensive either, so he could easily afford buying them. Which he did.

His shopping done, the green-eyed mage navigated through the alley towards the owl post office. And since he wasn't sending anything as big and heavy as a broomstick this time, finding the owls to carry his packages was not at all hard.

Done there, Harry absentmindedly summoned a holographic display with the clock to see how much time he still had before he had to return aboard of "Leto". Of course, that drew the attention of wizards and witches in his immediate vicinity: they had never seen anyone looking at the time like that. What's more, while it looked like magic, what he did was not the result of the _**Tempus**_ charm. Not to mention that whatever it was, it was cast silently and without a wand... Ignoring the gawking magicals, the young Potter headed towards the 'Leaky Cauldron' – he still had enough time to have a nice meal there.

Unfortunately for him, he was barely able to begin the said meal when a certain aged warlock stepped out of the fireplace in the corner of the pub. Not that the green-eyed investigator actually disliked Albus Dumbledore or anything like that, but he still wished the two of them would not meet today. It's just Harry had absolutely no desire to return to his old life, yet there were no doubts in his mind that the Hogwarts headmaster would try to guilt-trip him into just that...

"Harry? What a miraculous meeting, my boy!" Dumbledore exclaimed in a fake surprise. Though, the young Potter had to admit it was only his training as an investigator that allowed him to see through that. The greatest Light wizard he might be, that man was a master of manipulating others as well.

"Oh, hello, professor." The Bureau agent said rather calmly. "What can I do for you today?" He asked then, in a way that would make it not easy for the old warlock to respond without revealing that this meeting indeed was not a chance one.

"You've made us all worry so much when you suddenly disappeared without a trace back then." The Hogwarts headmaster continued, ignoring the young Potter's question. "It's so nice to see that you are safe and sound, Harry, my boy." He said then, before asking: "But maybe you can sate the old man's curiosity and tell me where you have been hiding?"

"Somewhere well beyond your reach." The green-eyed agent of the Bureau replied cryptically. It was clear that this answer didn't satisfy Dumbledore at all, but, for whatever reason, the old warlock decided not to pry for more details at the moment.

"And while I'm happy that you've finally decided to rejoin us here, I would like to warn you that Voldemort is active once again, and he still believes that you are a threat to him, so he will not stop until he has killed you." The aged warlock said. "For your own good, you should consider moving in to the Hogwarts castle. The wards here, as you know, will be able to protect you."

"Yes, I've heard that the Dark Lord has somehow revived himself." Harry replied. "However." He continued, nodding towards the shoulder straps of his uniform. "I came here because of a mission, and seeing that I've completed it already, I'll be leaving in but a couple of hours. And the chances are, I won't return here ever again. There is no reason for me to seek shelter inside Hogwarts." Something changed intangibly on Dumbledore's face upon hearing this.

"But, Harry, my boy, are you really going to leave the people here behind? Especially during these dark times?" He asked. "Your mere presence might just give the Light the strength to fight back against Voldemort and his Death Eaters more effectively. Surely you aren't going to deny us this?" The green-eyed mage let out a sigh.

"The question here is not whether I want to help you or not. I simply can't." He stated. "Great Britain is not a client of the military organization I'm a part of now, staying behind to help you resolve your internal problems would be a serious breach of protocols, something that will have dire consequence for me." He explained the situation. "Not to mention that it would also be a case of an unauthorized absence, which too is punishable." Dumbledore definitely didn't look happy after hearing this, but there was little he could do about it: since they were in public, trying to use mind magics to 'change' Harry's stance was not something he was going to risk. That left only non-magical means like persuasion or blackmail, neither of which looked like it'd be effective here.

"That is most unfortunate, my boy." The Hogwarts headmaster said in a condemning tone. "I hope that one day you will change your stance on the matter and come forward to help us." Then he turned around on his heels and walked back to the fireplace that was there in the pub, soon disappearing in the emerald flames as he floo'ed away.

Letting out a sigh, Harry returned to his meal, which, for whatever reason, didn't appear to be as appetizing to him anymore...

**~/ *** \~**

It was close to midnight, when a certain crook-nosed potion master showed up at the door of the Dark Lord's stronghold, claiming to have some very important news for him. With a heavy sigh and an unvoiced complaint about bad timing, Voldemort, who was about to call it a day, allowed the man in to report his findings.

"My Lord!" Severus Snape greeted, his robes still somehow billowing behind him, even though he was on his knee before the Dark Lord. "I'm here to report you something of great importance."

"Get to the point." The supposed heir of Salazar Slytherin hissed, almost like a snake that was agitated by a careless man. "And if I find that you are wasting my time, Severus, I will be greatly displeased. You sure do know, what happens when I'm displeased, right?"

"Of course, my Lord." The potion master replied. Making a small pause, he then proceeded with the actual news he wanted to share: "It appears that the headmaster had a meeting with the Potter brat this afternoon." He said. There was no surprise that this little tidbit of information had a great effect on Voldemort, instantly blowing his tiredness away.

"Are you sure about that, Severus?" The Dark Lord asked then, going his best not to let his shock show. Still, the news that the Boy-Who-Wouldn't-Die was indeed alive were troubling, and not just because the brat was supposedly the one with the power to defeat him. Probably even more troubling was his apparent ability to escape the detection for years before suddenly appearing out of thin air: Voldemort had personally performed a ritual which could locate anything anywhere on the Earth yesterday, and it made it look like the Potter brat didn't even exist at that time.

"As sure as I can be without having been there personally: there is no reason for the headmaster to lie about this. Especially since I've overheard him complaining about the brat refusing to help his cause." Now, this was new, Voldemort though. "From what I've heard while listening in, Potter is now a part of some organization with the rules that forbid him from interfering with whatever goes on here. Furthermore, he was supposed to leave Britain this evening. The headmaster was no longer able to locate him when I departed from the castle."

So, the Potter brat had decided to make an appearance for some reason, and now, supposedly, went back to hiding, the Dark Lord thought. He was too careful to believe this without some sort of a proof, yet it didn't look like a piece of propaganda by Dumbledore: why would the old man spread the rumors about Potter abandoning the Light to its fate? Either way, he'll have to confirm that the brat-who-lived was back to whichever hellhole he had been hiding in for the last three years...

"Your report is appreciated, Severus." Voldemort said. "You can leave."

"Thank you, my Lord." The potions master said, before standing up and walking out of the chamber, his black robes billowing behind him, as if carried by some undetectable wind...

**~/ *** \~**

A certain rolled up poster arrived to the Greengrass manor along with the rest of the owl post early in the next morning. And Daphne was quick to snatch it for herself, acting like she had actually been waiting for it. Magic'ing the thin but surprisingly strong cord that held it together away and unrolling it a bit to confirm that this roll was indeed what she had been expecting, the young witch promptly headed back to her room. Quite understandably, this made the rest of her family curious about the contents of that mysterious poster as it was quite unlike her to collect things like that.

And Astoria, being the youngest and the most curious, was quick to follow her sister upstairs, intent on finding out what was on that poster Daphne had just got her hands on. Being a quick brat she was, she got to her big sis's room before older girl could even begin hanging the poster on a wall.

"'Tori." The Greengrass heiress said with a sigh, annoyed with how hard-bitten her little sister could be at times. "Is there something you want?"

"Well..." Astoria stretched out, trying to pretend that she wasn't as interested in the contents of the poster as she really was. "I'm a tiny little bit curious about what has gotten you so worked up this morning, sis." She said then, inching a little closer towards the object of her interest. Daphne let out another sigh, clearly not falling for her little sister's tricks.

"Fine, here, you can have a loot." She said finally, before carelessly tossing the poster to Astoria. The said girl immediately unrolled it. And paused, as the contents of the placard were not what she had expected. There were nothing related to popular music bands there, nor there were any images of hot guys. Or even hot girls... Instead, the poster contained a large and very high-quality image of a planet that, according to the note in the corner, was actually the Earth.

Astoria's surprise upon finally realizing what she was looking at, though, was rather understandable, seeing that the wizards had never truly left the surface of their home planet and absolute majority of them had absolutely no idea how the Earth looked from space.

"A ...friend of mine made this for me when he noticed I liked the view so much." Daphne commenter, herself somewhat surprised by the quality of the picture Harry had made for her.

**~/ *** \~**

One Hermione Granger woke up closer to noon that day. But it was not a problem: after all, she was with her parents on a vacation, lazing around on the beaches of the Mediterranean France... Either way, having gone through her morning rituals, the bushy-haired witch went downstairs to grab something for breakfast. Her plans, however changed a little, when she saw a parcel waiting for her on the table. Apparently, someone decided to send her an owl...

Who could it be, though? It was way too early for the school to send her the list of the things she'll need next year, and her friends signed their letters. Sighing, the brunette reached for her miniature sneakoscope to check, whether this parcel contained something that could be harmful to her. And only when the device showed that it was completely safe, did she finally open it.

Inside of the parcel, there was a couple of advanced books on magic theory and... was that a recordable DVD disk? Hermione's curiosity about the mysterious sender of this parcel increased greatly as she couldn't recall anyone she knew who could both buy those books and record the disk – assuming it actually had something recorded on it, of course...

Thankfully for her, there was a DVD-player in the living room, so she could sate her curiosity right away. Inserting the disk into the player, she turned on the TV. For a little while, there was just a black screen. And when it went away, Hermione found herself looking at a green-eyed teenager in brown military uniform that looked vaguely familiar to her.

"Hello, Hermione." He began, addressing her directly. "I hope this message finds you well... It has been over three years since we've last seen each other, and I'm sure you've grown into a beautiful and smart young lady... That said, I'm-..." Here, having realized who that green-eyed teen was, the bushy-haired witch practically ripped the disk out of the player.

"How dare!.. How dare you?!" She hissed in a restrained rage. "You threw me away like garbage and now you think you can buy me back with a few gifts?!" She broke the disk in half. "I will never forgive you! I won't! Ever!" With some effort, she broke the halves of disk again. "I hope you die and go to Hell, bastard!" Throwing the debris in the general direction of the the waste paper bin and not caring whether she actually hit the mark or not, Hermione angrily stomped out of the room and out of the cottage: she needed to some fresh air to calm herself down.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	23. The rescue mission

The twenty third chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**StrawHatLuffy94**, **ultima-owner**, **aznxa21**, **FateBurn**, **god of all**, **Slirith**, **Reishin Amara**, **Ranmaleopard**, **roughstar333**, **Arc-Angel-Of-Fire**, **karthik9**, **Opinr**, **dragooner**, **SonatiShinonome**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**FrostingFlames**, **Impstar**, **Remilia - The Scarlet Moon**, **moon so bright**, **celf**, **Penny is wise**, **The 10th Wand**, Hermione still remembers Harry disappearing without even giving her a proper farewell gift (which she thinks of as a betrayal) and Ron breaking their friendship during the third year and then turning on her during the fourth. Thus, I don't think that it is unexpected that, she reacts poorly to Harry her out of blue.  
**Jose19**, no, Harry can beat Voldemort even now, though it will not be an easy fight to him. Especially since he has no experience if combating opponents that don't use straightforward attacks like those found in the Mid-Childan and Belkan magic systems or even simple physical attacks.  
**Lerris**, and isn't Harry allowed to be petty? He's not quite sixteen yet, an officer of an inter-planetary confederation's military or not. And, well, once she cools her head a bit, Hermione might repair the disk and watch the message Harry sent her till the end.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, I've answered your review via PM.

*** AN**: And the Chekhov's toy is finally used. Harry and co are going to save you, Lutecia, just wait for it!

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XX****II****I: The rescue mission**

"Thank you for your report, junior special investigator Potter." Colonel Abarth of the Investigator Department said as he finished listening to Harry recounting the important events of his mission to the non-administered world #138. The written copy of the said report was also present on the man's table. "However, I'm afraid, I will have to reprehend you somewhat for your rush and reckless actions." The green-eyed teen nodded nervously as his superior officer continued: "While I can understand your desire to protect the bystander-turned-hostage, going into the very heart of enemy base alone, without having any idea about what you might run into there, was at very least very stupid."

"I understand, sir." Harry replied while seemingly shrinking in fear. There was no point in denying that he had done that – it was in his report, after all. Trying to justify his actions was also not the best option right now. Especially since pretty much everyone here, at the headquarters, colonel Abarth included, appeared to be very stressed today. Thus, saying as little as possible was the best course of action for the young special investigator right now.

"It is nice to see that you at least understand that your impetuous actions might have led to you losing your life and to us losing a promising operative." The colonel said with a somewhat-tired sigh. Then he continued: "This is still quite a serious matter, and I probably should do more than just scold you, Potter, but... Because you somehow managed to take the enemy base down singlehandedly, we were able to use that team as a rapid response force in response to the events in the sector E-31."

As he thought about it for a second, Harry came to slightly horrifying realization that the captain Grangaitz's team was supposed to be performing a reconnaissance mission in that very sector. At least that was how he interpreted what Megane-sensei told him when he had seen her last.

"Dare I ask what happened there?" The green-eyed teen asked, somewhat scared by what colonel Abarth's response might be. ...There was a long pause, as if he was going through an internal debate on whether to reveal the truth or not, before he finally spoke:

"Seeing as you are not only a colleague, but also an associate with at least two of them, I believe, you indeed have the right to know this, junior special investigator Potter..." He said slowly, as if the words themselves were causing him pain. "Six days ago captain Zest Grangaitz and warrant officer Quint Nakajima were confirmed to be KIA. Warrant officer Megane Alpine is MIA, but is presumed to be alive at the moment." Understandably, this was a horrifying piece of news for Harry. But his commander wasn't done just yet. "Furthermore, four days ago a currently unidentified party carried out an attack on the Alpine residence here, in Cranagan. As the result, sergeant major Pierre Alpine of 93rd Ground Forces battalion was killed while Lutecia Alpine was abducted."

"Damn!.." Harry whispered lowly. "That can't be right." He knew that the colonel had no reason to lie to him about something like that, but he just couldn't accept that Quint-sensei was no more. And that both Megane-sensei and little Lutecia were missing. It was something he desperately wished to be a lie, a cruel joke, something... Yet, deep down he knew that he had no reasons to doubt that it actually was the horrid truth.

"I'm sorry." Colonel Abarth said as he placed his hand on the young Potter's shoulder. What else could he say right now?

* * *

Harry came to himself a bit only when he was already standing right in front of his flat's – now semi-officially called the Yagami-Potter residence – door. His feet must have carried him there on their own as he couldn't quite recall his journey there from the division headquarter. His mind was still stuck in the denial of his friends' and colleague's fate and the world around him seemed to be hidden away by a thick curtain of fog right now... Letting out a heavy sigh, he reached for his keys and opened the door.

"I'm home!" He called as he stepped inside.

"Welcome back." Signum called out as she stepped out of the kitchen, wearing an apron and holding a soup ladle in her hand. This sight caused the green-eyed teen to do a small double take. No, sure, he knew that all of the Wolkenritter could cook – even Shamal, thanks to the Hayate-chan's training – but even after a year of living under the same roof with her, it was still quite hard for him to imagine the pink-haired Lady of War being so... dare he say homey?

Either way, for whatever reason Harry couldn't see or hear any of his cohabitants. It was almost like the General of Raging Fire was the only one in the apartment at the moment.

"Where's everyone?" He asked.

"Vita and Zafira are out shopping since we are running low on provision right now." Signum informed him. Well, yeah, Reinforce and the Wolkenritter, being true Ancient Belkan knights, were big eaters. And even Hayate-chan, now that she began learning to use her magic properly, was never shy about filling her plates with food.

"And the others?" The young Potter asked next.

"They are on uninhabited world #62 right now. Reinforce is finally deleting the corrupted Defense Program completely, didn't she tell you?" This made the green-eyed investigator pause for a moment. And thinking back, he could remember his 'girlfriend' informing him that she had finally discovered a method to safely and permanently destroy that monster. But he couldn't quite recall her telling him when or where she would do that, or that she'll have Hayate-chan or Shamal accompanying her... Then again, he received that message while he was still looking for the Scaglietti's base on the Earth, so he could have just forgotten about those details...

"Oh..." Was all that he could say in response.

"You seem to be very distracted today, Harry." The pink-haired lady of war observed. "Did something happen?" She was just polite enough not to point out that his absentmindedness wasn't the only thing she noticed; his eyes were a bit red and he himself was on the verge of tears.

"Quint-sensei is dead." The young Potter said a bit out of body after a lengthy pause. Signum hadn't talked to her much, but she knew that the purple-haired knight was an important person to her landlord.

"My condolences." She said quietly. She knew that she should comfort him somehow. Yet, having always been the least emotional among the Wolkenritter, the pink-haired knight had no idea how to do that. And she was afraid that her clumsy attempts might only make Harry feel worse.

"...And Megane-sensei is MIA, and little Lutecia has been abducted." The green-eyed investigator continued meanwhile... Well, Signum thought, that definitely explained why the young Potter was so distracted – losing friends and associates like that must be painful. Yet, there was virtually nothing she could do to ease that pain of his.

"Well, if they are only missing, then it is likely that those two are alive." The General of the Raging Fire commented nonetheless. "And if that is indeed so, the Bureau will surely do everything in its power to recover them." She said.

"T-Thank you." The young Potter breathed out.

"Meanwhile." Signum continued. "The dinner is almost ready, Harry, why don't you get changed and come to the dinner room?"

"Okay." He said, still a bit lifelessly. Though, the pink-haired knight's words about the Bureau doing its best to save Megane and Lutecia did make him feel a little better...

**~/ *** \~**

Having gotten a little better by the next morning Harry rang major Genya Nakajima up to convey his condolences as well as to ask about the funereal. And as he soon learned, Quint's burial had already taken place yesterday, just a few hours prior to his return to Mid-Childa. Upon learning that, the young Potter asked for some clues that he could use to find his late teacher's grave: he wanted to bid her some final farewell and it would probably be too painful for Genya to guide him there personally.

Once he got the coordinates, Harry thanked the man, once again conveying his condolences to him. Then, he set out to lay a wreath on Quint-sensei's grave... Something that he needed to buy first. And since he really wanted it to be a special one, it looked like he will be spending quite a bit of time at the florist's this morning...

It was actually pretty close to noon, when the young Potter finally left the cemetery. But he wasn't returning home just yet. No, he headed straight to the Investigator Division's headquarters instead. The reason for that was quite simple: as he was standing in front of Quint's grave, he had a sort of epiphany – he could actually be useful in searches for Megane-sensei and little Lutecia!

* * *

"What can I do for you today, special investigator Potter?" Colonel Abarth asked with a barely-hidden surprised as Harry walked into the man's office.

"I want to offer my assistance in the recovery of Megane and Lutecia Alpine." The green-eyed teen said confidently. This proclamation definitely caused the commanding officer to raise an eyebrow: why would agent Potter, who had just returned from a mission far far away from Mid-Childa, believe himself to be able to offer anything useful to the investigation when even the better agents of the division had no idea where to look for those two.

"I'm glad that you burn with the rightful desire to see the justice served." He said. "But I'm afraid, I don't see how you can bring something new to the table."

"I will admit that the chance that I can actually help you is not that great, but it certainly does exist." The green-eyed teen replied. "I was a friend of Megane-sensei after all." Well, that certainly was something that colonel Abarth couldn't argue with. And as a friend of hers, Harry indeed could be privy to something that others were not. Could that something be useful, though, that was the question.

"Let me hear what you have to say then, special investigator Potter." He replied.

"First of all, colonel, could you please tell me, whether this toy had been found anywhere in the Megane-sensei's apartment?" Harry asked, while summoning a holographic display with a photo of Lutecia that Megane had sent him a couple of moths ago... Seeing an understandable confusion on the colonel's face, the green-eyed teen clarified: "There is a stealth tracking device installed inside this toy. And, as far as I know, only Megane-sensei herself, her husband, Quint-sensei, captain Grangaitz and myself have the activation codes. If there are others, I know not about them. And, for obvious reasons, I'm the only one who can use those codes now."

"I see." Colonel Abarth replied. "Unfortunately, I can't answer your question. Our people were not aware of its importance, thus no one paid heed to it." Harry nodded: it was understandable that no one had paid any attention to what looked like a simple toy.

"Then let me visit her apartment." The young Potter said. "It is too risky to activate it now to see where it is. If the tracker is indeed still on Lutecia, it will definitely spook her and Megane-sensei's kidnappers. It is impossible to tell, if we will even get a second chance to find their lair so easily."

"Alright." Colonel Abarth said. "I will do my best to acquire a permission to visit the crime scene for you, special investigator Potter."

"Thank you, sir." The green-eyed teen replied.

* * *

Unfortunately, obstructive bureaucrats existed everywhere, even on such near-utopian worlds like Mid-Childa. And, one of them, evidently, worked somewhere in the Investigator Division headquarters. There was no other explanation why it would take colonel Abarth so much time to acquire a permission for Harry to inspect the apartments owned by the Alpine family.

Once he was given that permission, though, the young Potter wasted no time and began his searches right away. And, much to his delight, he could not find that cat-like plush toy anywhere within the apartments. Of course, that was no guarantee that the tracking device inside that toy would really reveal where little Lutecia – and, likely, her mother as well – was held, it still gave Harry a ray of hope.

It also gave the senior officers in charge of the Investigator Division a hope that they will get a chance to make the bastards behind the attack on captain Grangaitz's team and the abduction of Lutecia Alpine pay for their crimes. Thus, once it became clear that the toy with the tracking device in it wasn't inside the Alpine residence, they more or less ordered the young Potter to get the readings from it...

**~/ *** \~**

Sein yawned. She was bored. She was so damn bored with this stupid guard duty. Why again did she need to monitor the communication channels that could be intercepted from this base? – it was not like anything even remotely 'interesting' ever happened in this poky hole of a place. To make her situation ever worse, she was all alone on the duty, without one for her to talk to. And even the intercepted television broadcasts that she could watch did nothing to help her stay awake and aware... Actually, they were so boring that they could be used as a weapon to put the Doctor's enemies to sleep.

Yawning again, the teal-haired combat cyborg got out of her chair and headed to the kitchens nearby in order to make a nice cup of strong coffee for herself. She needed it to stay awake as she didn't want Tre and Quattro turn her life into a living hell for falling asleep while on duty.

And while she was away from the console, an incoming signal originating from the far-away world of Mid-Childa was detected. Just a few milliseconds later something within this very base responded to that signal with a coded message. However, since even in this remote place there was a lot of 'noise' in the air, by the time Sein returned to the console with her coffee, the data on those two signals was not on the screen anymore.

And since the teal-haired girl was not at all interested in re-reading the huge and extremely boring logs of the radio detection-finding systems, she never bothered with finding out what had happened during her visit to the kitchens. Thus, a few hours later she'd report it to her older sister Tre that, like always, nothing of any particular interest had happened during the night...

**~/ *** \~**

The response from the tracking device finally came roughly four hours after Harry had requested its current coordinates. Apparently, Lutecia Alpine had been taken to the non-administered world #154, which was located almost on the edge of the mapped part of the cosmos... Well, it made sense for the one of the most wanted men in the Dimensional space to build his base as far away from the central administered worlds as possible.

Anyhow, now that the Bureau knew where their target was, a rescue party could be sent out. The question was, who was going to be included into that party. Especially since their opposition was capable of bringing down a team consisting of an S-plus ranked knight and two double-A ranked ones. Well, Harry himself was a given, even if he was likely not ready to fight on such levels just yet. As for the others... There weren't that many sufficiently-powerful investigators and enforcers to begin with, and only three of them were unoccupied at the moment. That wasn't nearly enough to go against such a powerful enemy, yet waiting for some more to become available was out of question.

Then someone suggested including the Wolkenritter and Reinforce into the party. With their limiters temporarily lifted, of course. That way, they would be powerful enough to stand up to whatever monsters their enemy had under his or her command. Especially since they all were more than just experienced when it came to fighting against the opponents who fought to kill.

That definitely solved the problems with the manpower for the mission, but... Even if their track record within the Bureau was spotless so far, most of the division commanders thought that sending a group of extremely powerful ex-criminals with their power limiters released away to some remote place on the edge of the mapped part of the space was not a good idea. Which meant that the limiters Reinforce and her knights were wearing at the moment had to be released when they stepped onto the battlefield and re-activated once the fight was over... In other words, Hayate Yagami – who was still listed as a civilian – and someone from the TSAB higher command would have tag along as well. They won't have to actually participate in combat, of course, but even the best warships weren't indestructible. Bringing them along was still a risk.

Thankfully, it looked like one of the Three Legendary Admirals and a member of the Bureau's advisory board, Marshal of Air Forces Midget Crowbel was quite willing to lend them a hand and take control over the power limiters of the Belkan knights and their silver-haired mistress for the duration of this mission. Thanks to that, the rescue operation could begin as soon as Reinforce, Shamal and Hayate returned from the uninhabited world #62, which was supposed to happen in but a few hours...

**~/ *** \~**

The plan of the rescue operation had been approved within a record time, and another seven hours later the team was already assembling in the dock B-16 within the TSAB headquarters, from where their journey to the non-administered world #154 aboard of battleship "Varuna" will begin. Actually, out of the entire team only Reinforce, Shamal and their little mistress, Hayate, haven't arrived yet; everyone else was already there by now.

And not counting the young Potter himself and the aforementioned trio of Belkan knights, the team consisted of Signum, Vita and Zafira to round up the Wolkenritter; enforcers Chrono Harlaown and Michael Avant – the latter of whom was the very man who tested Harry and Fate into the Investigator Training Program – and, of course, marshal Crowbel as the woman in charge of the whole operation.

After what felt like an eternity, but probably was only fifteen or so minutes in reality, Reinforce, Shamal and Hayate finally arrived to the dock, escorted there by a pair of Dimensional Navy officers. And while the little Queen of the Night Sky looked a bit tired, no thanks to the long voyage back there from the uninhabited world #62, a twinkle of happiness could be clearly seen in her eyes. Apparently, they had been very much successful in finally deleting the corrupted Defense Program from the Tome of the Night Sky.

"Alright men, listen up!" Marshal Crowbel said, in a surprisingly strong voice for a seemingly-frail old lady in her mid-to-late seventies. Then again, she was one of the Three Legendary Admirals of the Time-Space Administrative Bureau! Once the team – and Hayate – fell into rank, she continued in a bit softer voice: "Our mission is to locate the enemy base on the non-administered world #154 and free those suffering from confinement within it."

"Yes, ma'am!" The team chorused in response.

"The information about our opponents is scarce." Marshal Crowbel continued: "However, we know for sure that whoever they are, they are both strong and uncompassionate. Thus, I want you all to be careful and stand united. Protect others as you would protect yourself and, I'm sure, you will make it through anything our enemy has in store for us." Waiting for the rescue team to chorus their agreement, she added: "Then, let's go and save those whose freedom was taken away by the criminals! Everyone, get shipped!"

"Yes, ma'am!" The members of the team chorused, before they began boarding the warship "Varuna".

"_So... I take it that you were successful in destroying the old and corrupted Defense Program?_" Harry asked Reinforce telepathically as the two of them stepped inside the battleship that will be their 'home' for the next week or so. He wanted to confirm at first hand that the planet-wrecking monster they all had fought against on Hayate's Earth was finally dealt with and would never hurt anyone again. The red-eyed beauty nodded in response.

"_Yes, Harry. I am finally free from that monster._" She said. "_The Bureau commanders also said that since the corrupted Defense Program is no more, it should be alright to reduce my remaining sentence significantly. And, maybe, they will even have my functions as a unison device restored as well._"

"_That's some fantastic news. It calls for a massive celebration._" Harry told her. There was a short pause, before he added: "_Though, I think, it will have to wait until after we've saved Megane-sensei and Lutecia._" The only response the silver-haired Lady of the Night Sky gave him was a smile.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	24. Crashing in

The twenty fourth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**ultima-owner**, and that's what he's doing. Whether successfully or not, is another question...  
**Jose19**, I've answered your review via PMs.  
**roughstar333**, probably, I'm not really happy with either the previous or this one either, but, I just can't come up with something better. As for Harry returning to (his) Earth... That's gonna happen around the logical middle of the next arc. Depending on how the story flows, it can be anywhere between 4 and 6 chapters.  
**FateBurn**, **karthik9**, **Ranmaleopard**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **god of all**, **Penny is wise**, **Opinr**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Arc-Angel-Of-Fire**, mhm... True, Reinforce's primary loyalty and love are all towards her _Master_ Hayate, but she still loves Harry. And even to you it doesn't look like it, they are most definitely more that just 'friends-with-benefits', though, yes, saying that their love is a 100% Eros wouldn't be correct either. It also has some shades of Philia and Storge (aka friendship and family affection).  
**Guest**, both Hedwig and Yuki (aka Rein/Zwei) will (re)join the cast soon enough. Them joining the Yagami-Potter household will (likely) be the next major event after Lutecia and Megane are rescued.

*** AN**: The attack on Jail Scaglietti's base begins now!

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XX****I****V: Crashing in**

After four long days of traveling through the Dimensional sea, battleship "Varuna" finally arrived to its destination, the non-administered world #154. It was a rather barren world that didn't even have an official name, though not because of its insignificance. The reason behind that actually lay within the Bureau policies: according to them, the inhabited worlds were named by the local population, yet the most advanced civilization here was still somewhere in the Bronze Age with all ensuing consequences.

Still, no matter how interesting observing the planet and the local societies would be, it wasn't what they came here for. The recently-abducted Lutecia Alpine had been 'sighted' on this world not quite five days ago, presumably held at the base owned by an inter-dimensional criminal Jail Scaglietti. Of course, there were no guarantees that she was still there, but...

Once the battleship entered a stable orbit around the planet, Harry got tasked with determining the current location of Lutecia's tracking device. And, according to the results he got, at least the device itself was still on this planet. Meanwhile, tracing the signal revealed its exact location, thus giving marshal Crowbel all the data she needed to formulate the plan of actions.

Since the observation spheres deployed by "Varuna" could see the installations clearly too advanced to be built by the locals around where the tracking device was, one could reasonably presume that Lutecia herself was there as well. On the other hand, it was also possible that Jail Scaglietti – or whoever else was behind the girl's abduction – left the device there intentionally, to lure her would-be saviors into a deadly trap... And, unfortunately, it was impossible to determine which it was without having someone teleport to the surface and inspect these installations personally.

Alas, there was no time for scouting: if this base was still in use, those within already knew about the arrival of the Bureau's forces to this world and were either fortifying their defenses or preparing an escape – neither of which was a good thing for the rescue team. Thus, marshal Crowbel decided that the entire team should be sent out at once. It was a bit of a risk in case this indeed was a trap, but the Legendary Admiral was sure that they will be fine no matter what.

But before the team could be deployed, one more thing had to be done. Namely, the limiters that the Wolkenritter and Reinforce were wearing at the moment had to be temporarily deactivated as their overwhelming experience alone would not enough here, some raw power was needed too. Well, unlike her knights, the silver-haired Lady of the Night Sky, it was decided, will have only three limiters lifted from the get go. Should the situation warrant it, though, three more could be lifted as well, boosting her well into the double-S rank territory.

And once the limiters were off and everyone changed to their Barrier Jackets or Knight's Clothing – here, Harry absentmindedly noted that while black with golden trimming mini-dress certainly looked good on Reinforce, to him, the Ground Forces brown uniform looked even better on her – the team was ready to go. And since even now she was the most powerful among the either, the red-eyed beauty was the one to teleport everyone to the surface of the planet.

**~/ *** \~**

The afternoon for doctor Jail Scaglietti began with the arrival of a TSAB battleship onto the orbit of the planet that housed his current base of operations. It was not a good thing, though there still was a small chance that it was nothing more than an off-schedule patrol – the Bureau did things like that from time to time, especially when something had agitated them. And losing a whole team of strong investigator would certainly do that.

Alas, his hopes were dashed when the battleship exchanged messages with _something_ that was within his base. What's more, he had no idea, what that something was: Quattro was sure that she had disabled the communication modules in Megane Alpine's device. But, whatever, right now there were things more important than finding that damned bug. This base was done for and needed to be evacuated before the Bureau razed it to the ground.

To make his situation even worse, Jail wasn't even sure that he had enough power under his command to stall the TSAB strike team – eight mages and knights, all of whom held at very least a double-A rank in power – for long enough to get the transport vessel loaded and ready for launch. After all, with Cinque still recovering from the wounds she had sustained in her fight against captain Grangeitz, Tre was the only true direct combatant among the active Numbers right now. Deici and Sein, while good at providing various forms of support, just wouldn't last if an enemy somehow manages to lock them in a fight. As for the gadget drones... Even the true Belkan ones that he had excavated, despite their numerical superiority, weren't likely to do much against the Bureau team like the one approaching his base right now.

But, no matter the odds, Jail wasn't going to just give up and stop fighting. He hadn't fulfilled his unlimited desire yet, and this barren world would not be the last chapter in the story of his ascension! He and his daughters were going to escape from this planet today and then, one day, they will make those bastards from the Bureau pay!

**~/ *** \~**

As soon as the flash of light that accompanied **Dimensional Transfer** faded away, the members of the rescue team found themselves in the middle of seemingly endless dry steppes that Jail Scaglietti – or whoever else was behind the kidnapping of Lutecia Alpine – had chosen as the place to build his base. But the sights of the untouched nature wasn't what they came here for, thus the eight mages and knights turned their attention to the aforementioned base that stood maybe a quarter of a mile away from their current location.

Once they made sure that there were no traps that they could detect between them and their target, the team began cautiously advancing towards the base. And before they had covered even a half of the distance, an army of gadget drones surged into the area to 'greet' their master's unwanted guests.

In response to the appearance of those mechanical menaces, Harry, Chrono and Reinforce unleashed a few barrages of powerful spells, quickly turning at least two thirds of the drones into nothing more than scrap metal. And those drones that were lucky to survive this bombardment were swiftly picked off by the rest of the team. Even Shamal, who true to her role of a combat medic remained a few paces behind the rest of the team, managed to score more than a few 'kills' with Klarwind's precise strikes.

Maybe ten minutes later, there were no more still-active drones in sight and the team proceeded with gaining entrance into the base proper. And even though it was far from the first time the young Potter saw Vita in action, he still couldn't help but be surprised by how much raw strength was packed into the red-head's child-like body – the miniature knight _somehow_ managed to beat a two inches thick metal gates out with just a couple strikes of her hammer.

However, the enemy had been expecting something like that and, as soon as the gates were breached, a power attack in the form of a thick pinkish-orange beam was launched towards the rescue team from the dark depths of a partially-lit hall. And shielding everyone from that attack took the combined efforts of Zafira and Shamal. What's more, by the time the beam finally fizzled out, the attacker had moved into the deeper parts of the base already, thus denying the Bureau agents a chance to answer in kind.

Making sure that there weren't any more nasty surprises awaiting for them inside, the team finally entered the hall. From there, they headed towards the corridor their mysterious attacker had used to escape not a minute ago. And as they were crossing the hall, Vita couldn't help but notice something.

"Guys." The redhead spoke. "Don't you find it strange that they let us walk in with just some token resistance? I mean, it's not like we've destroyed everything this guy has while outside, right?" And just as Harry was about to scold the miniature knight for tempting the Fates unnecessarily, a familiar barely-audible clacking of metal against concrete reached his ears. The others heard it as well, though they didn't appear to realize what that sound meant.

"Watch out! There is an invisible drone stalking us!" The green-eyed teen called. A moment later Shamal, who was covering the team's rear, turned around while sending the crystals of her rings out like bullets..Another moment later, two of those gems found their target, tearing holes through the drone's mechanical body. The said machine faded into existence for a second, before exploding violently, showering everyone with shrapnel of its parts... Thankfully, Harry's shields were very good at blocking physical attacks like that, thus no one got hurt.

"Oh my!.." The knight of the Lake exclaimed.

"I wasn't aware that these tin cans survived to the present days." Reinforce commented. "It's been over two centuries since the Belkan empire had fielded these machines last."

"Well, I did run into three of them while dealing with Scaglietti's base on my home world." The young Potter responded. "I've mentioned them in my report too, so I'm not sure why they haven't been added to the list of Scaglietti's known assets yet."

"We can clear this mess up later." Michael, who was the field commander of the team, said. "Right now our job is to save the abducted people... For now, just be aware of your surroundings and don't let one of these things catch you off guard." Waiting for everyone to acknowledge his words, he continued, nodding towards the corridor their attacker had disappeared into: "Now, let's go, we've a job to do."

And so the rescue team was once again on the move, even if their advance towards the heart of the base was not exactly very fast. After all, they needed to be cautious and keep an eye out for various deadly traps and surprise attacks that could be awaiting them behind every corner. So far, though, they've only come across some decently-powerful, but clearly hastily-laid and too obvious to work on anyone who wasn't completely blind, magical mines in a couple of places. They've also encountered a few type I gadget drones, but those went done even before they could fire a single shot...

The other reason for their relatively slow progress was the fact that they were also checking every single room they came across in hopes of finding something important there. Alas, so far those rooms had been nothing but oversized closets full of useless junk.

Eventually, the corridor they were following led them into a decently-sized hall, where a rather sizable group of type III gadget drones was waiting for them. And a magical scan of the area revealed that there also was a pair of the Belkan drones hiding in the dark corners... The ensuing battle was brief and Scaglietti's mechanical warriors were all quickly turned into scrap metal. As the result, however, the team found itself facing another problem: there were three different pathways leading out of the hall, and none of those looked any more 'correct' than the others.

"What now?" Vita asked as she planted her hammer – Graf Eisen – against the floor.

"I believe, we should split up." Signum suggested. "With that we should be able to broaden the search considerably. And it doesn't look like we will run into any opposition which could be overcome only with the combined efforts of us all while indoors." The pink-haired knight elaborated.

"I agree with this." Michael said with a nod. For the next few seconds he remained quiet while trying to think up the most optimal division of the team into the smaller groups. Finally, the red-haired enforcer spoke: "And this is how we're going to split:..." Group number one included Michael himself, Vita and Zafira, and they would be exploring the part of the base accessible through the left corridor. The second group consisted of Signum, Shamal and Chrono – the latter being its leader – and they were going to investigate the path leading straight ahead. The final group was just Harry and Reinforce, and the right corridor was theirs to explore. "...And should you find yourself in trouble or just run across something interesting, don't hesitate to contact the rest of us." Michael said as he finished giving out the instructions. "Good luck!"

"Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!" Everyone chorused. Then, the three groups went their separate ways.

* * *

The corridor that Harry and Reinforce were told to investigate barely had any adjoined room, and those that were there didn't contain anything that the Bureau might consider to be interesting. There also weren't many traps to slow them down. Thus, the two of them were advancing at a very decent pace and soon enough they found themselves standing in front of locked gate-like metal doors at the end of the corridor. Not that something like that was going to stop them...

Silently telling her partner to take a step back, the silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind activated a spell that the young Potter didn't recognize. The said spell surrounded her left hand with what looked almost like liquid darkness. Then, she punched the doors, leaving a sizable indent in them. Another couple of such powerful strikes later these doors were blown off their hinges, allowing the pair to peek into the room that lay beyond.

It was a very spacious room that had its walls touched up with homey pale light-green wallpapers. The rightmost wall was devoted to a number of bookshelves that still had some magazines and books on them. Meanwhile, a number of comfy sofas and armchairs was occupying the far left corner of the room. However, now that furniture was upturned and sizable group of gadget drones was using it as their cover. What's more, it looked like these drones were guarding the passages leading out of the room rather then being a mere ambush.

Maybe, just maybe, Harry thought, he and Reinforce were on the right way to wherever Lutecia and the others were held at... Right now, however, they needed to deal with the machines in the room. Exchanging nods, the pair stepped inside with the green-eyed teen warding the drone's attacks off with his **Greater Aegis** shield while the two of them prepared their own attacks.

"Silver spears of the frozen Heaven, come to my aid and destroy the evil!" Reinforce chanted as roughly a dozen of whitish orbs pulsing with powerful magic manifested themselves around her. "**Gungnir!**" She called then, releasing a number of beam-like attacks that easily blow holes right through the type III drones, AMF or no AMF. And a moment later, Harry fired four shots of his own spell – **Solar Flare** – taking down the remaining drones with it. "Which path shall we take now?" The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind asked then. Indeed there were two paths leading out of the room they had just cleared.

"Why don't we go straight?" The young Potter replied. After all, if they head left, there was a good chance that they'll end up in the part of the base that was supposed to be checked by Chrono's group.

"Alright." Reinforce said, nodding in agreement.

Crossing the room and breaking through the locked door, the two of them found themselves in a rather wide corridor that also had its walls touched up with those pale light-green wallpapers. The doors to the adjoined room also looked more homey than any other they had seen within this base until now. Harry's first guess was that they have come across the living quarters of the base, and checking the nearest room out quickly confirmed that it indeed was so. Unfortunately, all of the personal belongings had been removed from the said room, thus preventing the Bureau agents from finding out who inhabited this place, or what they were working on.

Stepping back into the corridor, Harry and Reinforce were about to continue their advance deeper into the base, but before they could make more than a few steps, dozens of various gadget drones began pouring into the hall right behind them.

"Go ahead." The red-eyed beauty said as she turned around and got ready to fight the approaching mechanical army. "I'll deal with these and catch up with you real soon." That certainly caught the young Potter off guard.

"A-Are you sure?" He asked, receiving only a nod in response. There was a long pause, before he reluctantly agreed to separate from his silver-haired partner. "Alright." He said then. "Stay safe."

"You too." The Lady of the Blessed wind replied, just a few moments before the first of the drones shot a magical beam at her. Of course, it was handily stopped by her shield. "Go." She urged Harry on, while simultaneously blasting the offending drone to bits. Letting out a sigh, the green-eyed teen nodded as he resumed his advance down the corridor...

**~/ *** \~**

Even though he had kind of expect it, given the quality of the team the Bureau sent to clear his base, Jail Scaglietti was still far from happy with how fast they were advancing. What's more, it looked like those guys will be able to reach the dock in time to attack his transport vessel during the take off... Of course, since the said vessel actually was a decommissioned destroyer, the chances of them actually damaging it were pretty low, but he wasn't going to take any chances. Especially when there was an enemy battleship waiting for him on the planet's orbit.

No, with each passing moment it was becoming clearer and clearer to Jail that some sacrifices had to be made, it he wanted to maximize his chances of successfully escaping from this barren world. And he even knew what that sacrifice had to be...

"Uno!" He addressed his eldest daughter and secretary, who was supervising the embarkation of food crates into the transport vessel. "A change of plans. We're leaving the Alpines behind." After a small pause, he added. "Actually, we're leaving everyone held in lab C behind."

"Are your sure about that?" The purple-haired lady asked. "Weren't they a valuable research material? And little Lutecia... After all the troubles we went through to get hold of her, you're now giving her back to the Bureau just like that?" Doctor Scaglietti nodded in response.

"Yes, losing valuable assets like them is, of course, quite unfortunate. But, unlike you and your sisters, or the project V, they are in no way crucial to the success of our plans." He said. "Furthermore, giving the Alpines back to the TSAB now will significantly increase our chances of breaking free as the deployed team will be too occupied with their protection to think about attacking our transport. Thus, our only worry will be the battleship on the orbit."

"I see..." Uno said, understanding her 'father's' reasoning.

"And even if we're trading them for our freedom, their powers won't be lost to us forever." Jail continued then. "If we suddenly find ourselves in the dire need of someone with their Rare Skills, I've collected the necessary samples from them. Creating you a new sister with those powers is well within the realm of possibility now."

"Mhm..." His secretary hummed under her breath. Doctor Scaglietti was about to something else, but got distracted by the sight of a couple of worker drones carrying Cinque's recovery pod inside the transport ship.

"Also." He said finally. "It will be prudent to include a couple of extra regeneration chambers into the goods we're taking with us. There is a chance that Tre and Deici might not escape their fights unscathed." As much as he wished for his 'daughters' to be a perfection, Jail knew that they all had their limitations, and... They weren't strong enough to assuredly survive stalling an overwhelming enemy force without receiving any serious wounds.

"Understood." Uno replied. "I will see to that." Giving her a nod, Jail headed to the other side of the hangar where a group of worker drones was struggling with loading the spare power generators into one of the vessel's side cargo compartments.

**~/ *** \~**

After a few minutes of creeping along the long and bendy corridor while checking all of the adjoined rooms, Harry finally reached its final segment and could now see a pair of massive metal gates ahead. However, those gates weren't locked and it was making him suspect that some sort of an ambush was waiting for him just beyond them. Still, he had to keep pushing forward if he wanted to save little Lutecia, and so the young Potter cautiously approached the gates, ready to raise his most powerful shields at the first sign of an enemy attack coming towards him.

There were none, though, and the green-eyed special investigator allowed himself too peek into the chamber that lay beyond these gates. It was a large rectangular room that had a door at the middle of each wall. Right now it was empty, but numerous wall sockets and signs on the floor suggested that not long ago various machinery was located there. And it looked like no one was in there, which only made Harry's suspicions about this being a trap grow stronger. Yet, his only way forward lay through this room, and so he stepped inside.

At first, nothing happened. Then, when he was already a few steps in, the gates behind him suddenly closed on their own. A moment later, a purplish-blue blur shot at him through what turned out to be a masterfully-crafted fake wall in the far right corner of the room. The young Potter barely had enough time to summon his shield to try to protect himself from this attack... And even then, he was afraid that his **Greater Aegis** won't be able to withstand it. It did though. And by stopping this attack, his shield also revealed its true nature to the green-eyed special investigator.

That human-sized blur wasn't a magical projectile; it was a person that had charged at him at some ridiculous speed. The said person was a tall and muscular woman that appeared to be in her early twenties; she had short purple hair and yellowish eyes. Her clothes were just a two-colored blue plug-suit with bluish-silver metal shoulder-pads and a loose armored collar bearing roman number three on it. Attached to each of her ankles, there was a pair of thin blade-like purple wings, while a longer blade of the same color was sticking backwards from each of her wrists... And when Harry's shield stopped the attack, one of those blades had been raised to behead him.

Seeing as her surprise attack failed, the plug-suit wearing girl jumped back and took a fighting stance that the young Potter couldn't quite recognize. Either way, it was quite clear that she was going to come at him again. This time around, he won't be unprepared, though; thanks to his investigator training, even that lone attack had given him a glimpse of this woman's abilities. And seeing as she was noticeably faster than him, trying to keep distance, especially in an enclosed space, would be all but impossible. Whether he wanted it or not, he will have to fight her in melee... So, wasting no time, Harry switched his device to its Assault mode.

"**Hardlight blade!**" He commanded in whisper, encasing the physical blade he now had in magic. He also surrounded himself with the mana cloak to supplement the armor of his barrier jacket and further improve his defenses. His opponent huffed, as if not believing that those would change anything. Then she attacked again. And, once again, she was moving almost too fast – the young Potter found himself unable to track her movements with his eyes properly.

She wasn't fast enough for his instincts, honed by many many spars with the Wolkenritter, though. Even if she was little more than a blur for him, he still _knew_ where she was going to strike him, and so was able to work his defenses accordingly. Indeed, a moment later two different blades clashed against each other. And not giving the purple-haired woman time for another strike, Harry counterattacked. Alas, his left fist went through an empty air as his opponent jumped back to avoid getting hit. Well, if she thought that putting some distance between them was going to save her from his payback...

"**Starfall Shooter!**" The green-eyed teen released a dozen or so magical bullets, sending them out to strike not only the spot his attacker was occupying, but the area around it as well. Alas, none of his projectiles managed to connect with that woman – she was just too fast. And she didn't take his attempt to shoot her down well.

As she charged at him once again, the young Potter could only duck to the side to avoid losing his head. He hadn't expected a knee to his gut as a follow up, though, and was sent flying into the wall across the chamber. At least, his mana cloak took the brunt of the hit... That was probably the only reason why he was able to move aside when the purple-haired girl tried to punch him out a moment later. Her surprise at failing to do him in once again, though, left her wide open, and Harry didn't waste this opportunity to land a hit on her.

"**Whips of Light!**" He called out next as thick ropes made from mana wrapped themselves around his opponent's body, restricting her movements. "**Starfall Shooter!**" He immediately used his fastest attack spell in hopes of scoring a hit before this strange woman managed to somehow free herself. Alas, that still wasn't fast enough and the magical bullets hit nothing but an empty space.

The two combatants then stared each other down for a few moments, before once again springing into action. This time around, though, the green-eyed special investigator was prepared for his opponent's onslaught a bit better and managed to completely dodge her energy blade as it tried to cleave him into two. Her second swing came uncomfortably close to drawing his blood, but Harry somehow managed to go around it as well. Then he jumped backwards while firing a somewhat underpowered – but really fast to charge up because of that – bullet of his **Solar Flare** spell at the purple-haired woman.

And he actually managed to score a hit! Too bad, the shot wasn't powerful enough to deal any real damage and succeeded only in ripping her plug suit and pissing her off. Even worse, it didn't look like her anger was going to turn the yellow-eyed miss into a straightforward berserk; no, that anger only empowered her without clouding her mind. And the difference was really noticeable.

Within just a few seconds the renewed assault, and Harry was already sporting a few light wounds on his chest and right shoulder. And he wasn't even getting a chance to disengage or counterattack under this onslaught! At this rate, a single mistake would spell an end to him. And, given how intense the fight was, that mistake occurred pretty soon.

Thus, the young Potter found himself on his back on the ground, and his attacker was stepping on his stomach to prevent him from rolling away and evading her next attack. She was already raising her energy blade for a strike at his head, when the doors leading into the chamber – the ones that Harry himself had used a minute ago – got knocked inside, falling onto the floor with a loud crash. A moment later, the purple-haired woman jumped away as a white beam of magical energy passed through the spot she had been occupying.

Turning his head to look at his savior, Harry saw that it indeed was Reinforce, now wielding the battle staff Schwertkreuz in her right hand, while the Tome – or its simulacrum – was floating just above her left one. And to complete her image of a warrior-goddess, there was that unmistakable aura of great power surrounding the silver-haired beauty now. There were no doubts in the green-eyed teen's mind that she had another set of her limiters (temporarily) lifted since he had seen her last.

"Sorry, I am a little late." She said simply as she addressed Harry. At the same time she leveled her staff against the still-unidentified girl that was their enemy here.

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That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	25. Rescued!

The twenty fifth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**roughstar333**, **FateBurn**, **karthik9**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Remilia - The Scarlet Moon**, **god of all**, **Opinr**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Impstar**, yeah, though I think I have actually made Tre lose too easily in this chapter...  
**ultima-owner**, getting her clothes damaged might actually not be the trigger for her temper - taking a solid and potentially-dangerous hit from someone she views as a vastly inferior being, on the other hand...  
**jgkitarel**, yeah, whatever else he might be, Jail Scaglietti is one of the few villains out there, who knows that no plan survives a contact with the enemy. Thus, he makes sure to make a few contingency plans in case something not covered by his original one happens.

*** AN**: I'm terribly sorry for the delay, but the real life just couldn't stop piling the problems for me to deal with ASAP, while also sapping any and all inspiration to write I might have had...  
Also, Joseph Irvine, who is mentioned in this chapter as one of the men the Bureau saves from the Scaglietti's lair, is intended to (eventually) become the father of one Stella Irvine / Stella of Hückebein from FORCE.

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**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XX****V: Rescued!**

"_Her main strength seems to be her speed._" The green-eyed teen informed his partner. "_She's at least as fast as Signum, probably even faster._" Reinforce nodded.

"_As fast as my General, you say?.._ _Well, let's see how she'll fare when she can't move?_" She said while raising Schwertkreuz higher into the air, summoning numerous arrays of Belkan runes on nearly every available surface in the room. The, muttering something under her breath that the young Potter couldn't quite hear, she tapped the floor with the butt of her staff. A moment later hundreds of bladed chains erupted from the runic arrays, turning a good half of the chamber into an impassable cobweb.

"Wow!" Harry couldn't help but breath out in astonishment. The silver-haired beauty, meanwhile, continued her attack, now completely immobilizing her opponent with more conventional binding spells. And hers appeared to be powerful enough not to get torn apart by the plugsuit-wearing girl... Nodding to herself, Reinforce then summoned nearly a hundred of blood-red dagger-like projectiles all around her prey with her kind-of signature spell, _**Blutiger Dolch**_.

Completely restrained and unable to move, the purple-haired woman could do absolutely nothing to protect herself from the incoming attack. Not that being able to move would have helped her much there... As the smoke began clearing, the two Bureau agents saw that their opponent was now an unconscious and somewhat-scorched mess on the ground.

"Shall we detain her now?" The Lady of the Blessed Wind asked. Upon Harry's nod, she dispelled the cobweb of chains so that the two of them could actually approach her. But before anything else could have happened, a teenaged girl with teal hair that wore the same blue plugsuit appeared out of the floor. Then, quickly taking a hold of her unconscious comrade, she disappeared back into the floor, leaving a rather stunned pair of TSAB agents behind.

"Did she just... swam through concrete?" The young Potter asked, dumbfounded. Reinforce, who, despite being millenniums old, had never encountered a mage with such an ability before, could only give him nod... There was a pretty long pause then, and seeing as no new enemies were making their appearance, the silver-haired beauty decided it would finally be alright to worry about her partner now:

"Are you alright, Harry?" She asked, looking at the slightly-bleeding cuts he got during his fight a couple of minutes earlier.

"I'm fine." The green-eyed teen replied. "These are just scratches." Well, maybe not scratches, but these wounds weren't anything serious either. "Anyway,.." He continued. "Let's go on, we still need to find Lutecia. She got to be somewhere around here."

"Alright." Reinforce agreed. The two of them then walked up to the nearest door leading out of the chamber. And once the silver-haired beauty forcefully removed it, they found themselves staring down a corridor that without any doubts was a part of some laboratory. "Do you think they might be in here?" She asked then. After all, only the subjects of the experiments were usually kept in the laboratories, and it was quite doubtful that little Lutecia had already been turned into one: she had been brought to this base less than a week ago...

"Who knows..." Harry replied, apparently thinking more or less along the same lines. "But we need to check this part of the base regardless." Well, true... "Let's go." Nodding, the Lady of the Blessed Wind followed him down the corridor. It wasn't long, and soon enough the two of them reached its end, where three doors marked with Latin letters were located. Not having any better idea, they decided to investigate lab A first.

Unfortunately, all they found in that room were the signs that some sort of medical machinery had been located there once upon a time, and some databanks that were wiped clean... In other words, nothing useful. Lab B next door, likewise, had been emptied of pretty much everything that could reveal the truth about the experiments that were conducted there.

Then, they forced their way into the lab C... It was clear that quite a few things had been removed from it as well, however, some remained. And, most notably, there were five large glass tubes placed along the wall. Three of them were filled with mostly-transparent bluish-green liquid and had naked people floating inside, kept alive but in a state of suspended animation by some machinery.

And, one of those three was Megane Alpine. Whatever had happened to her during that ill-fated mission, it certainly did a number on her. There was a large punctured wound on the left side of her stomach and another other just under the ribs on the right side – both likely through and probably made by those Belkan drones. Then there were a few relatively-minor cuts and patches of burnt skin here and there. And, of course, numerous still-healing bruises pretty much everywhere... Thankfully, all of her wounds had been cleaned and appeared to be slowly healing already.

The other two men held in stasis in the nearby (and unlabeled) capsules too sported some wounds here and there, but neither of them appeared to be in a condition as bad as Megane's, likely because they've been here for much longer and, thus, had more time to heal...

Either way, the operation commanders had to know about this discovery, as did the other two groups the rescue team had split into. So, calling forth a holographic display, the young Potter made a call. A video one to marshal Crowbel aboard "Varuna" and audio only one to Chrono's and Michael's groups.

"This is group three." He said. "We've located investigator Alpine and two other mages we aren't able to identify at the moment. All three of them are kept in recovery pods in coma. I don't think we will be able to extract them safely without some assistance from an engineer in order to ensure the continuous work of life-support systems during the transfer." Indeed, it looked like the lives of those three were entirely dependent on the LSS, and should those fail for whatever reason, they would all die.

"Understood." Marshal Crowbel replied. "The medical bay will be notified about this development and we will send down an engineer when the area is deemed safe. Do you best to protect investigator Alpine and those others in the meantime."

"Yes, ma'am!" Harry said with a nod.

"I'm sorry, but..." Michael interposed. "My group won't be able to help you for a little while: we're pinned down in what looks like a gym by a massive ambush of gadget drones." A few moments later, Shamal, informed everyone that Chrono's group too was occupied at the moment. In their case, they got caught between a sniper that had greeted the rescue team at the base's doors and a few dozens of drones in a half-empty storage facility.

"Don't worry, we shall be alright here." Harry replied to them both.

"Very well, then." Marshal Crowbel said then, addressing to him. "The engineer will be sent to your location when either enforcer Avant or enforcer Harlaown confirm that there are no more enemies in your vicinity." The green-eyed Potter nodded.

"Alright, we will be waiting for them here. Over." Closing the communication channels, he turned his attention to Reinforce. "I'd like to check those two storerooms over here." He spoke, nodding towards the doors at the far end of the chamber they were in right now. "Please, look after Megane-sensei for me, okay?" The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind nodded.

"Sure." She said, while moving to stand between the laboratory entrance and the recovery pods like an impenetrable wall. Nodding her a 'Thank you', Harry headed towards the storerooms. The doors there were noticeably thinner and not as strong as the ones they had to force their way through on the way here, so he could open them on his own without much trouble.

The first storeroom held nothing really important at the moment, though the few canisters of that bluish-green liquid, which Megane-sensei and those other two men were suspended in, would probably be very helpful later on. The same went for some other materials found in the room.

Done there, the young Potter went to investigate the second storeroom. And once he forced his way in, he, much to his surprise, discovered that the said room didn't hold any expendables for Scaglietti's experiments or even simple cleaning supplies. Instead, it was a small and confined nursery. And while it had everything necessary for that, this room was definitely not a good place to raise a child in.

Also, at the first glance it looked like that there was no one in here, but the sound of quiet sobbing was saying otherwise. And, upon a closer inspection, a lock of lavender hair could also be seen peeking from behind a crumpled into a heap blanket inside the crib. Taking a step in that direction, Harry confirmed that it indeed was Lutecia Alpine hiding there. And she appeared to be very scared. Indeed, shaking with fear, she was clutching her white cat-like plush to her chest like it was her lifeline, while trying to make herself disappear by pressing herself into the far corner of her crib.

Alas, for whatever reason, she didn't seem to recognize him right now. It might be because her own fears were warping the image of his beyond recognition in her mind. Or she just couldn't realize that Harry wearing casual clothes or TSAB Ground Forces uniform and this Harry, who was wearing a barrier jacket, were one and the same... Whatever the reason might be, upon seeing that she had been noticed, Lutecia tried to shrink away even further.

Sighing, the green-eyed teen did probably the stupidest thing one could do in the middle of an enemy base: he dismissed his barrier jacket, throwing away the protection it provided, while returning his device to its standby form. And now that he sported the Ground Forces uniform, the lavender-haired girl seemed to finally recognize him a bit. At least she stopped shaking with fear and relaxed a little, now looking at him with those big burgundy eyes of hers that were still full of tears.

"Uhm,.." Harry breathed out. Now, what should he say in order to make Lutecia roll round to him out of her own volition? Of course, he could just pick her up by force, but he doubted that the little one needed any more stress right now. "Lulu-chan... Come here, I'll take you back home." He said finally as he offered her his hands. The lavender-haired girl cocked her head to the side as she continued looking at him, without really moving from her 'hiding' spot. "Come on, Lulu-chan, it's time to go home!" He tried again, in an as soothing voice as he could muster.

This time, Lutecia decided that she trusted him enough and, crawling forward a little, she accepted his hand. Picking her up in his arms, Harry summoned his barrier jacket back. Then, he returned to main chamber of the lab C, where Reinforce was waiting for him.

"_Look, whom I've found._" The young Potter said telepathically as he nodded towards the lavender-haired girl in his arms. The Lady of the Blessed Wind responded with a soft smile.

"_Nice work._" She communicated back to Harry at the same time. "_Now the operation is officially a success._" The green-eyed investigator nodded. Indeed, the primary objective of this mission – locating and rescuing the Alpines and the others, who were kept confined within this base – was now more or less accomplished. Well, those people weren't actually rescued yet, but...

"Ma!.." Lutecia cried out as she extended her free hand towards the unconscious lavender-haired summoner-knight floating inside the recovery pod. "Ma- mama!"

"Your mother has been hurt and is now sleeping, Lulu-chan." Harry replied soothingly as he cradled the little one to his chest. "She can't take you in her arms right now. But she always loves you and..."

Suddenly, the two Bureau agents in the room heard something large, like a roof section, moving somewhere nearby. Well, 'heard' might not be exactly the correct word here as it was less the actual sound and more vibrations spreading through the floor that alerted them about... well, that something was happening. Once whatever that moving thing was stopped moving, there was a short pause that lasted for a couple of seconds. Then, it felt like the entire base shook with a roar of powerful JATO engines as _something_ _big_ was trying to take off nearby. This thundering sound had scared little Lutecia into tears, while Harry and Reinforce got ready to flee or fight, in case the launched vessel decided to level the base to spite the Bureau.

Just as the green-eyed teen thought about asking "Varuna"'s bridge about what was going on, marshal Crowbel contacted him and, apparently, the other two groups, herself. According to her, Jail Scaglietti, having abandoned this base, was now running away, using a decommissioned CX-class destroyer as his escape vessel. And the launch of the said ship was actually what they had heard just now... Only when she finished briefing everyone on the situation, did marshal finally notice little Lutecia in Harry's arms.

"You're recovered Ms. Alpine too?" She asked.

"Yes, she has been held in a room next door from her mother." The young Potter replied with a nod.

"Good work." Marshal Crowbel said after a second-long pause. Then, she continued: "The groups led by enforcers Avant and Harlaown are still all tied up so you'll have to hold the line until they are done with their current fights and secure your area. We'd rather not do the extraction of investigator Alpine and the those two men while there is a high chance of an enemy attack." The green-eyed teen nodded in understanding seeing as the engineer aboard of "Varuna" was not combat-capable...

"Yes, ma'am!" He replied. And with that the conversation was over. Once marshal Crowbel closed the communication channel, Harry let out a sigh. While he was glad that the Alpines were found alive – even if Megane-sensei was but a step away from a grave – and would do everything in his power to keep them safe, he wasn't exactly thrilled carrying out the guard duty.

Too bad, he forgot that Fates quite liked to fuck the people up. And, right now, having 'heard' his not even conscious desire for something a bit more interesting than merely watching over Lutecia and the trio in the recovery pods, decided to give him just that.

Maybe half a minute after marshal Crowbel's hang up, a holographic display popped into existence in the chamber that was the lab C. However, the one ringing up wasn't a part of the Bureau this time. Instead, it was teenaged girl with brownish-golden eyes hidden behind glasses and brown hair made into twin pigtails sticking to the sides. She was dressed into the same two-tone blue plugsuit as the Scaglietti's minion Harry and Reinforce had fought not long ago – but bearing roman number four instead of 'III' – and had a sleeved, fur-trimmed white cape thrown over it.

"Good day, the TSAB agents." She said in fake-sweet voice. "I can see that you've found your missing friends... But do you really think we'll let you have them back this easily? Let's play a game; you can keep those you actually can protect." As those words left her mouth, a reddish hologram of a button appeared floating in the air besides her. And, after giving Harry and Reinforce a few moment to try and guess what that button would do, she pressed it. "Have fun!" And with those words the brown-haired bespectacled girl rang off.

A second later relatively weak explosives started going off all around the base. At the ceiling level. And once huge cracks started spreading across the ceiling after a few moments, the young Potter realized that everyone in there was in a very real danger of being buried under the tons of concrete. His reaction was to have his device deploy an **Aegis Barrier** using a cartridge as the power source, while he himself cast a **Lesser Aegis** shield over it as an additional layer of protection.

Nearby, the silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind was sheltering the recovery pods and herself under a massive and visibly-powerful barrier spell that definitely had a few elements borrowed from his own one – it was actually quite surprising for the the green-eyed teen that he had accidentally stumbled upon an idea that was an improvement over whatever other, better, mages had come up with throughout the last couple of millenniums. But, whatever, the composition of spells didn't matter right now; their ability to ward off tons of falling concrete debris did.

**~/ *** \~**

"Quattro!" Jail Scaglietti called from the other side of the ex-destroyer's bridge. "Stop playing around. We're about to enter the belt of clouds, so get ready to use your Silver Curtain." The brown-haired girl let out a sigh – she'd rather see how those pest survive her dropping the ceiling on them – but did what her father wanted to do.

Her inherent skill, the aforementioned Silver Curtain, allowed her to create various illusions through the manipulation of electromagnetic waves. Granted, it was of little use in direct combat, especially when compared to Tre's super-speed or Cinque's item materialization/detonation, but it was invaluable when she needed or just wanted her enemies to make fools of themselves – only the most advanced and most sophisticated tracking systems could see through her illusions. And even L class battleships, like the one the Bureau had fielded against them, weren't equipped with those yet.

What's more, the Silver Curtain, like any other power short of actual omnipotence, had its limitations. Creating illusionary copies of a whole battalion of gadget drones was one thing, and Quattro could do that relatively easily; making an illusion of a vessel the size of a not-so-small mansion was a task on an entirely different level. Still possible to pull off, of course, but requiring every ounce of her powers. And her freedom, as well as that of her father and her sisters, depended on her fooling the Bureau with the illusions of the transport ship they were aboard of right now...

"Alright, here we go." Quattro said, mostly to herself, as she began weaving the illusion. And as she did that, the greenish-yellow 'magic circle' of her IS template appeared under her feet. A moment later, the outsides of the vessel began glowing with the same greenish-yellow color. Then, colorful wisps of mana began separating away from this 'aura'. These slivers of power, in turn, condensed together into five shapes identical to the original decommissioned destroyer. Another couple of seconds, and these shapes found the colors and stopped glowing, becoming completely indistinguishable from the original.

That, however, wasn't enough for the bespectacled combat cyborg. Pushing her powers to their limits, Quattro made the vessel she – and her father and her sisters – was in vanish from the view completely as well. Now, she thought, there was nothing those fools from the Bureau could do to stop them!

The Silver Curtain was dropped.

**~/ *** \~**

"Ma'am!" A man in charge of "Varuna"'s sensory systems called, addressing to marshal Crowbel, once the Scaglietti's escape vessel – now times five – finally rose out of the clouds. "The contact with the enemy has just ...multiplied. Our systems insist that all of them are real." Which was absolutely not possible, seeing as destroyer-class ships just don't suddenly appear out of thin air.

"And can you tell which one is real through other means?" The elderly commander asked. After all, it was possible to find the real one among the fakes by tracing its movements since before those copies appeared. Alas, she received a negative answer: they had temporarily lost track of Scaglietti's vessel while it was within the clouds, thus making it impossible to trace its trajectory now. "Prime the bombardment cannons!" Marshal Crowbel ordered. "We have to disable the real vessel before it slips into the Dimensional sea!" Indeed, while L-class battleships had a very high maximal speed, they couldn't accelerate fast enough. By the time they reached their cruising speed, the overall-slower CX-class destroyer that Scaglietti was using would have a head start big enough to place it outside of "Varuna"'s detection range.

"Yes, ma'am!" The crew present on the bridge chorused as they quickly went about preparing the battleship's side batteries: they had maybe thirty seconds, before the target got within the cannon's range. And once that happened, "Varuna" started firing... Only none of her shots managed to hit the actual target as all five destroyers they could detect turned out to be nothing more than very complicated and life-like illusions.

"Disperse the fire!" Marshal Crowbel ordered, seeing as precise attacks were not working. Hopefully, she was right and the Jail Scaglietti's real vessel was just hiding under some extremely-powerful stealth system nearby... Following her order, the battleship's cannons started firing more randomly and, after maybe ten seconds, one of the salvos exploded against a shield surrounding what should have been an empty space. "Concentrate fire on point 0-8-3!" She ordered then.

Alas, by the time the other cannons were all trained at the specified spot, the Scaglietti's escape vessel had already moved away from there. And since it was still completely undetectable for any and all of the sensor systems, "Varuna" couldn't use precision attacks to disable it. To make the situation even worse for the TSAB, that decommissioned destroyer was rapidly approaching the First Jump Orbit. Once it got there, it would just break loose by slipping into the Dimensional Sea.

With that in mind, marshal Crowbel once again ordered to disperse the cannon fire in hopes that they will manage to randomly hit – and, thus, expose – the Scaglietti's vessel again. Unfortunately, Lady Luck wasn't on their side at the moment, and the invisible destroyer continued successfully evading the volleys of cannon fire...

That changed a bit when the 'gate' leading into the Dimensional Sea was created: by concentrating the cannon fire around that location, "Varuna" succeeded in landing a few hits on its elusive target, even destroying its defensive shield. Alas, that was not nearly enough to stop Scaglietti's escape vessel, and it successfully fled through the 'gate'.

"Dammit!" One of the bridge technicians swore.

"Worry not." Marshal Crowbel reassured him and everyone else. "Our failure to capture inter-dimensional criminal Jail Scaglietti is, of course, unfortunate, but it doesn't affect our primary mission – recovering investigator Alpine and the others held at the base down there – in any way. Concentrate your efforts on their successful extraction now." She said.

"Yes, ma'am!"

**~/ *** \~**

Thankfully, the generator powering up the lab C – and, thus, the life-support systems that kept Megane and the two still-not-yet-identified males alive – wasn't critically damaged by the ceiling failure. Thus, as soon as it was confirmed by Michael's group that there were no more active gadget drones in the area, an engineer was sent off to prepare the recovery pods for transportation.

And since the danger of an enemy attack was no more, it was decided that little Lutecia should be brought aboard of "Varuna" as soon as possible. Even if she appeared to be in a good health, there were no guarantees that Scaglietti hadn't implanted some nastiness into her during those few days she had spent his 'care'; finding and removing those 'surprises' as soon as possible was important... That, and a little kid like her would be nothing but a distraction for the engineer and his helpers, which, given that any mistake on their part might cost the trio in recovery pods their lives, was impermissible.

Harry, not being especially knowledgeable about the magitek hardware, volunteered for the task... One application of **Dimensional Transfer** later, and he, with little Lutecia in his arms, was standing in the battleship's transportation chamber. From there, he headed straight for the medical bay.

Thankfully, the lavender-haired girl turned out to be 'clean' as even a rather deep scan couldn't detect any unwanted 'surprises' hidden within the her body. The same examination also showed that she wasn't suffering from any known maladies or physical traumas. Alas, her mental healths likely wasn't as good: losing her father, almost losing her mother and being abducted from unknown nefarious purposes was almost guaranteed to leave a scar on the poor girl's soul, even if it wasn't all that likely that she will actually remember these events...

Once the medical officer gave Lutecia a clean bill of health, Harry took her to the wardroom as neither of them had any more things to do in the medical bay right now, especially since not all of the preparations for the reception of the recovery pods were complete yet. Upon arriving there, the young Potter was a bit surprised to find Hayate in the room, watching some random movie on the TV. As it turned out, marshal Crowbel had her leave the bridge as soon as the battle was over.

Since there wasn't anything really interesting to watch on the TV anyway, the little Queen of the Night Sky decided to help him entertain the young Ms. Alpine. And, the green-eyed teen soon learned that despite – or, maybe, because of – being all but a child herself, Hayate was really good with the kids and Lulu-chan seemed to really love playing with her...

* * *

The recovery pods were finally brought aboard "Varuna" a little more than an hour after Harry and Lutecia had left the medical bay. Of course, the rescue team was also back, their job now officially completed, and quite a few of them then dropped by the wardroom to relax after the hard work... Soon enough, Reinforce and all of the Wolkenritter sans Shamal – she was helping the battleship's medical officer – were there. Thankfully, everyone was too tired to be very loud, and so little Lulu-chan could sleep well in Harry's arms.

Another three or so hours later the medics were finally done with assessing their new patients' conditions, and so marshal Crowbel summoned everyone who had participated in the rescue operation for a briefing. Leaving still-sleeping Lutecia with Hayate-chan, who wasn't going to take part in that briefing, the young Potter headed for the conference hall...

The meeting began with marshal Crowbel thanking everyone for good job as well as informing them that, despite the best efforts of the battleship's crew, Jail Scaglietti managed to escape. Then, she pawned her word to Shamal. The Knight of the Lake then proceeded to inform everyone about the conditions of Megane Alpine and the two men that had been rescued from Scaglietti's clutches earlier today.

One of those two men turned out to be Joseph Irvine, a grand-nephew of the current CEO of MTech Inc. and himself a manager of one of the company's local branches on the administered world #18, Alwas. He was missing for roughly four month, having disappeared in a major wreck where an overloaded cargo truck had rammed through a passenger train. The other man was Joseph's bodyguard and a member of the Eglet clan.

As for Megane herself... While Shamal made a reservation about not being all that great when it came to such an extreme conditions like that of special investigator Alpine, the blond knight did say that the possibility of full physical recovery was pretty high for her. She couldn't say how long the lavender-haired woman's coma would last, though. It could be as short as a couple of months or as long as a few years. And then there was Megane's magic... Her Linker Core had been heavily damaged and it was quite unlikely that it would ever heal up completely. Unless some sort of a miracle happened, Megane's career of an investigator was over.

Oh well, Harry thought, at least his sensei was alive and would recover one day. That was more than enough for him...

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	26. Lutecia's new home

The twenty sixth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**jgkitarel**, I'm actually not sure how long I'm going to keep Megane in coma. Probably, a year or two at most. More than that would be not even believable, considering what is going to happen right after Harry visits his home world once again... Either way, she'll definitely be back before the StrikerS time. As for Lutecia's crush on Harry, well, read this chapter and you will see that it's going to probably be twice as hilarious as you originally though. Especially since Megane _will_ tease Lu-chan about it.  
**FateBurn**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Impstar**, **god of all**, **myst**, **Opinr**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**ultima-owner**, no, it didn't; I mean it worked as intended... Reinforce just dispelled them too early to prevent Sein from rescuing Tre.  
**Jose19**, I'm not sure that I've discussed this with you and I'm too lazy to go through my PM inbox/outbox to confirm it, but, in short, that problem won't really be as serious as you think, especially once Hayate warms up to him a little more. Plus the next arc is going to net Harry yet another (female) friend, the one that can and will return to Mid-Childa with him, once the mess out there has been sorted out. As for Harry vs Voldemort; Harry has noticeably more raw power than Moldyshorts, but his offensive spells all boil down to dealing direct and external damage to the targets; not to mention that Harry needs to have his target in sight to attack it. Voldemort might not have as much raw power, but he also has a far greater variety when it comes to offensive magic, plus he can use trigger-based spells and curses that allow him to take potshots at Harry all the way from his secret and well-warded safehouse.  
**roughstar333**, I hope that this won't really offend you, but I actually had no plans to include Hermione into the next arc (the one culminating with Harry vs Voldie) at all, but I think I might come up with some plot thread that would involve her as well.  
**MikuRikaChan**, yeah, an idea it is, but I don't think I will be using it within this story. Maybe somewhere else, thought, it will bear some nice plot.

*** AN**: This chapter is a bit shorter than the usual, but... Anyway, Hedwig is going to re-join the cast, now as Harry's unison device, in the next chapter. Hayate is also getting a new unison device for herself in the form of Yuki-chan (the local version of Zwei, if you don't remember)

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XX****VI: Lutecia's new home  
**

While the active phase of the mission had been only a few hours long, it still left most of the rescue team members, Harry included, quite very spent. Thus, to them it felt the voyage back to the TSAB Headquarters dragged on and on forever, even if in reality it lasted the same four days it had taken battleship "Varuna" to reach the non-administered world #154 – that's how strongly everyone just wanted to return home and get some rest already.

Eventually, though, they returned to the Bureau HQ and docked within that gigantic space station. Then, marshal Crowbel finally declared the mission to be over and dismissed the rescue team, letting them get some much-deserved rest. Free at last, the seven members of the Yagami-Potter household wasted no time on mingling around the headquarters and headed straight to the spaceport to catch the nearest shuttle to Mid-Childa... Five more hours, and they were finally home!..

And even though it was still an afternoon when they finally reached their apartment, Harry and the Wolkenritter went straight to their beds – the mission left them spent, emotionally if not physically or magically. Hayate, who wasn't an active participant of the operation, and Reinforce, who just never really developed a habit of sleeping, remained awake, though. And to occupy themselves with something while the rest of their family was asleep, they began preparing a massive party to celebrate their most recent accomplishments: Harry's solo mission; Reinforce finally freeing herself from the Tome's old and corrupted Defense Program; and, now, the successful rescue of Megane and Lutecia.

A few hours later, the now-refreshed Wolkenritter joined their mistresses, and the six members of the Yagami family continued to work on arranging everything for the party together. Thus, by the time Harry finally woken up in the next morning, all was ready for the celebrations.

And what a celebration it was; thanks to the efforts of the little Queen of the Night Sky and her faithful vassals, the party at the Yagami-Potter household went on and on for hours, spanning from the late morning to the pretty-late evening with just a few stops so that Harry and his friends could once again pay their last respects to Zest Grangaitz and, especially, Quint Nakajima...

* * *

Probably because she had taken the role of the party's host upon herself, Hayate was quite tired by the time the sun set over the city of Cranagan. And so, excusing herself, the little Queen of the Night Sky disappeared towards the bedrooms in order to get some well-deserved rest. And the Wolkenritter decided that they probably should take some repose as well, thus Harry and Reinforce were left to continue the party just by themselves.

And continue they did, though in their own way: now that the circumstances stopped conspiring to keep them from being intimate with each other, the two of them were going to catch up on what they've missed. And they had a lot of catching up to do...

With everyone else out of the room, Harry and his silver-haired lover weren't really showing much restraining in their desires for each other and soon the TV and the snacks were completely forgotten as their world shrank to just the two of them and the sofa they were lying on as they snogged each other with the full might of their passion... And that was just the beginning; soon enough their clothes started coming off as the pair sank deeper and deeper into their lust. But before it all escalated too far...

"Harry?" Reinforce, her face lit with a pretty blush, asked as her green-eyed lover gently stopped her from pulling his T-shirt off him. Her own top was crumpled somewhere above her now-fully-exposed breasts and her unbuttoned and unzipped jeans were half-way down her hips. "Something's wrong?"

"We should move to our bedroom." The young Potter whispered lowly, before laying a quick kiss on the silver-haired beauty's lips. "I don't think others will be happy if we mess this room up." The Lady of the Night Sky stopped for a brief moment to consider this. And as much as she wanted more love right here and right now with the risk of getting caught in the action actually driving her desires even stronger, she had to agree that he had a point.

"O-Okay." She finally agreed after a short pause. Leaning forward to plant one more small kiss on her lips, Harry then picked Reinforce in his arms. And once she wrapped her hand around his shoulders, he proceeded to bridal-carry her towards their bedroom...

* * *

A couple of hours – and also a few rounds of passionate lovemaking – later, the two of them were cuddling naked on their bed now, enjoying each others' warmth. Their little world, however, soon was disturbed by a constrained exclamation of 'oh my' originating from the room's doors, the doors that they apparently had forgotten to close when they relocated there...

Snapping back to the reality, Harry and Reinforce turned their attention towards where those sounds had come from, but the only thing they saw was the brown mop of Hayate's hair disappearing behind the corner as fast as that girl could move on a crutch. Dammit, this wasn't good...

"_Let me deal with my master, Harry-kun._" The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind communicated telepathically as she pulled herself out of his embrace and got off the bed the two of them had been sharing until just moments ago... The young Potter, who still hadn't quite caught up with what was going on, merely nodded in response; and a moment later he got treated with the sight of his red-eyed lover hurrying after her little mistress while summoning a more homy version of her black-and-golden battle mini-dress to cover her nudity on the move.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Harry just hoped that Reinforce would indeed be able to resolve this whole situation without any relationship problems arising between himself and Hayate-chan...

* * *

The things were a little... strange and a bit awkward during the breakfast the next morning. Thankfully for the green-eyed teen, it didn't look like the little Queen of the Night Sky was really angry with him, even if she was giving him _a look_ every now and then. On the other hand, whenever Hayate-chan glanced at Reinforce, an almost atomic blush would start blossoming on her cheeks.

As for the silver-haired beauty herself, she also couldn't look at her mistress without blushing, though hers was a bit more restrained. So, something _interesting_ had happened between the two of them yesterday night, Harry concluded. And he'd be lying if he said that he wasn't at all curious about what exactly had taken place between those two girls. Yet, he knew that their relationship was none of his business, so he refrained from asking any questions... There appeared to be no major rifts between him and Hayate, and that was enough for him. That said, he just hoped that this awkwardness would disappear and everything would go to norm soon...

As for the other four members of the Yagami-Potter household,.. The Wolkenritter too definitely noticed that something had changed between their two mistresses over the night. But they weren't about to question them about it either. If either Hayate-chan or Reinforce wanted them to know more about it, they would tell them about it, they thought.

**~/ *** \~**

About a week after everyone returned to Mid-Childa, a missive from the Bureau higher-ups arrived to the Yagami-Potter household. In short, Reinforce and her knights were getting the remaining durations of their mandatory service for the TSAB noticeably reduced as a 'thank you' for their hard work during the rescue operation. Furthermore, the Wolkenritter were no longer required to wear their power limiters now, while their silver-haired mistress could have three of hers taken off now. And, finally, all five of them had the right to choose their duty stations returned to them.

Understandably, the last bit had spawned quite a conversation among the members of the Yagami family as Hayate-chan was really curious about where everyone wanted to go. As it turned out, though, most everyone was quite satisfied with their current units; only Vita wanted to request a transfer. When asked about where she wanted to transfer to, the miniature Knight of the Hammer gave the following answer: Air Forces' 5th expeditionary wing.

"My, my, someone wants to be together with our cute Nanoha-chan?" The Queen of the Night Sky said in a tone that made the thoughts going through her head blatantly clear to everyone within an earshot. Vita huffed, crossing her arms on her chest as a small blush blossomed on her cheeks.

"Well, somebody has to keep an eye on that little devil so that she doesn't kill herself or something..." The petite knight replied in a totally-not-honest voice.

"Of course, of course." Hayate-chan said as she waved her hand in a manner that made her disbelief in the redhead's reasoning as clear as crystal. "You have my blessing, Vita-chan." That was where Shamal lost her composure and dissolved into giggles, prompting the red-haired Knight of the Hammer to start chasing her 'round the living room with Graf Eisen in her hands...

**~/ *** \~**

The young Potter was quite surprised when someone rang his doorbell late on a Saturday morning: as far as he knew, neither he himself nor any of his cohabitants were expecting any guests today. Understandably curious, Harry peeked out through the Judas hole to see, who these unexpected visitors were. They turned out to be a pair of the Social Services agents.

"What can I do for you today, gentlemen?" The green-eyed special investigator asked as he opened the doors and invited those guys in. Truth to be said, he was really curious about what brought them to his humble abode: among the members of the Yagami-Potter household, only Hayate-chan was considered a minor, yet he was quite sure that the Social Services guys weren't there because of her. And he wasn't the only one. Signum, who had stayed behind to help him with housekeeping while everyone else went to have fun outdoors, was watching the unexpected guests from the kitchen's doors.

"You are on the list of potential foster parents for Ms. Lutecia Alpine." One of the agents said after the pair introduced themselves. "We're here to see whether you home will be a good place for her to grow up in." Oh... So they've decided against keeping Lu-chan at the hospital till her mother finally awakened, Harry thought. And Megane-sensei thought highly enough of him to entrust him with her daughter! Still, was there really no one before him on that list? And the young Potter didn't shy away from asking that question.

"Yes, there were others before you on that list..." The other Social Services agent replied. Indeed, Harry wasn't on the top of that list; Lutecia's still-living blood relatives were. However, those people were her maternal great-grandmother and a set of paternal great-grandparents. And all of them were too old to look after Lu-chan properly... As for the other candidates, Nakajima family were at the top of Megane's list, but following Quint's untimely demise, Genya felt that he would be too busy with his own two daughters and managing the 108th battalion to be a good foster parent for Lutecia. No, if there was no one else up for the job, he would take care of her, of course, but... He'd rather someone else became Lulu's guardian. "...And you are one of the top candidates at the moment, provided you are willing to look after Ms. Lutecia Alpine, of course."

"No, I wouldn't mind taking care of Lulu-... of Lutecia-chan." Harry stated.

"Good." The second agent continued. "Then, we shall inspect you apartments to see whether they are fit for a child to live and grow in. We would also like to have a chat will all of the adults residing in here... though it seems like not everyone is present at the moment..." The man trailed off here.

"Well, if you really need them right now, I'm sure I can ring them up and ask to come back here as soon as possible." Harry stated then.

"That would be most helpful." The Social Services agents agreed.

"Alright. You can probably inspect the apartments meanwhile." The young Potter said next, while telepathically asking Signum to play a guide for those two. That done, he 'dialed' Reinforce up...

* * *

The inspection of the Yagami-Potter household lasted for a good few hours, mostly because the Social Services agents had to carry out six independent interviews with the adult residents. Yes, even with Vita, who, despite being over a millennium old, looked – and often behaved – like an eight years old kid... And while the results of this inspection were a secret for the time being, Harry was quite sure that everything went fine, seeing as the agents left his apartments in a pretty good mood. Or, at very least, without being visibly put off by something.

He was finally contacted again almost a week later. And, as it turned out, despite everything he ended up being picked as the primary candidate for becoming Lulu-chan's foster parent. Once his intentions of actually taking that role were confirmed, he was invited over to the local Social Services office in order to sign the required paperwork. As soon as those papers would be processed, he'll finally be allowed to take Lutecia under his roof...

Harry was also informed – more like reminded – that there would be weekly inspections of his home for the next four months and biweekly ones for the six more years after that to ensure that the proper conditions for raising a child were maintained. Thus, if he were to leave for somewhere and take little Ms. Alpine with himself, he should inform the Social Services office beforehand.

Another thing for the young Potter to consider was his job. Being an active investigator meant that he risked his limb and life on every mission. Furthermore, those missions themselves could be as short as a few days or as long as a couple of months. Neither of that would be helping him with being a good parent, foster or otherwise. After some thinking, the green-eyed teen decided that he should quit his current job and transfer to a less dangerous and time-demanding position. Or, better yet, become unemployed until Lutecia grew up a little and didn't require as much attention. He did have enough money on his account to last for a couple of years like that, even without 'leeching' some from Reinforce and the Wolkenritter... Not that they would mind helping him out with this...

Colonel Abarth was understandably upset about the Investigator division losing yet another combat mage, but he also understood the young Potter's reasoning well and agreed that it was probably the right decision. In the end, he offered Harry the position of a keeper of the department's archives – a job that generally would require him to be at the office for just a few hours a week. The salary was, of course, much lower too, but that didn't really matter to the green-eyed teen at the moment, thus he gladly accepted the offer.

**~/ *** \~**

With all the necessary preparations that he could think of complete, Harry finally set off to collect Lulu-chan from her current 'home' at the Cranagan's central hospital, where her mother had been transferred to a few days ago. Reinforce was tagging along with him, as did Hayate, even if long walks were still quite tiresome for her.

Of course, before he could actually collect Lutecia, Harry had to drop by the Social Services to sign a few more papers as well as to get an agent that would make sure that everything was in order, before he was finally allowed to take little Ms. Alpine to his home. Thankfully, that was it, as far the bureaucracy of the Administered worlds was concerned.

That, of course, didn't mean that there weren't any other problems for Harry to solve... For one, Lutecia would need new clothes seeing as the young Potter couldn't just collect the ones already bought for her from the Alpines' residence. And, unlike how it was with the furniture, buying fitting clothes for someone without them actually being there to try those out was close to impossible. And then there probably was a multitude of other things that a little girl would need that the green-eyed teen just couldn't have known about beforehand...

"Hello there, Lu-chan." Harry said as knelt before the bed Lutecia was sitting on, idly playing with some random toy the nurses had found for her somewhere. "Would you like me to take you home?" Thankfully, this time around, the lavender-haired girl did recognize him right away. And, she had actually reached out to him on her own.

That was definitely a good sign, the Social Services agent thought. Up until now they had been a bit concerned with entrusting little Ms. Alpine to the people who didn't have any real experience in raising children – Mr. Potter had none at all, while Reinforce and the Wolkenritter had only ever observed others do it over the courses of their long lives – it looked like choosing their household was the right decision after all: Lutecia knew and trusted them already, and while inexperienced, they all were good people and would definitely do their best to give her everything she'd need.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	27. Unison'ed hearts

The twenty seventh chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**Ranmaleopard**, **karthik9**, **FateBurn**, **Penny is wise**, **Opinr**, **god of all**, **lordamnesia**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**ultima-owner**, well, her timing could have been even worse...  
**Impstar**, for whom? For Harry she'll definitely be a surrogate daughter. Same with Reinforce, the Wolkenritter and, probably, Hayate. Hedwig and Yuki who will (re)join the Yagami-Potter family this chapter, though, will see her a their sister.  
**jgkitarel**, he he... Though, Hayate is still a child and she is usually asleep at nights, when the 'games' between Harry and Reinforce usually take place.  
**Jose19**, I've answered your review via PM.  
**MEEEEESOCOOOL**, there was no Hermione in the latest chapter...  
**24CaratCoal**, call it 'competitive balance' as Harry with both wizarding magic and the one wielded by mages would utterly destroy any opposition he'll ever face. As for the in-universe explanation, let's say that the Lost Logia that he got inadvertently bonded with had altered his source of magic to match Linker Core of _**Nanoha**_-verse mages, thus greatly limiting - he still can cast the weakest spells, even if it is extremely hard for him and wastes too much power for it to ever be considered even remotely worthwhile - his ability to use wizading magic.

*** AN**: Thanks for 100k hits on the story, folks! Also, I'm going to take an extra week for a break... So expect the 28th chapter sometime around mid-June.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XXVII: Unison'ed hearts**

It's been a month since Lutecia became Harry's ward, and he was slowly getting used to being her foster parent. Yet, even with everyone helping him to the best of their ability, taking care of her wasn't easy... At least his duties of an archive keeper weren't all that time-consuming, thus allowing him to spend most of his time with his family...

Oh, and since he wasn't expected to participate in any missions, the young Potter finally got around to sending his device, Phoenix Claw, over to 'doctor' Kyoko Chidori for maintainance. And to get the prototype of the Mana Capacitor System installed into it as well – his once-upon-a-time mentor did tell him some time ago that she had all of the required components on her hands now... If everything worked out well, Harry was confident that this upgrade would boost his combat capabilities by making him a lot less dependent on the more traditional cartridges, which were always a limited resource.

Back to the matters of the Yagami-Potter household, though. While the things had improved a lot with Hayate-chan letting most of her jealousy over Harry's intimate relationship with Reinforce go, that rift wasn't completely healed yet. Besides that, there were small household quarrels happening once in a while: even though they were far from normal people themselves, the seven, now eight, members of the Yagami-Potter household together formed a surprisingly normal family, with all of its ups and downs...

"I'm home!" The green-eyed teen called as he stepped into his apartment, back from his 'working day' at the Investigator Department Archives. "Did anything happen while I was away?" He asked then.

"Welcome back, Harry-kun." Reinforce greeted him as she stepped out of the living room and into the corridor, Lutecia babbling cutely in her arms. "And, actually, yes." The silver-haired beauty continued. "Finieno-san called about an hour ago. She says, Hedwig and Yuki are almost completed; we will likely be allowed to have them join the family this weekend."

"Oh..." The green-eyed teen breathed out... How long has it been since that incident with his beloved feathered friend? He couldn't wait to see her again. "Nice to hear that. Should I give her a call and make an appointment for us?" He asked then.

"No, I've sorted everything out already for us." The Lady of the Blessed Wind replied. And as Harry mouthed her a 'thank you', she added: "And I too can't wait to see my beautiful daughters!" That certainly made the young Potter raise an eyebrow a little, but he didn't comment on it. After all, technically, that was true: Reinforce had donated small shards of her Linker Core for Hedwig and Yuki-chan, which, from a certain point of view, indeed made her their parent.

* * *

On Friday afternoon, Finieno-san once again contacted the Yagami-Potter household and confirmed that both Hedwig and Yuki were ready to set their foot into the big world. But just because their spirits and their physical forms were complete now, it didn't mean that those two were completed as devices as well: fine-tuning for both normal and unison modes still lay ahead of them.

And let's not forget that the unison devices were also mages themselves, and thus would need to be registered with the Bureau as such as well. That, in turn, meant that they will have to go through power ranking tests and get a crash course on the laws the administered worlds lived by. And since the young Potter was still a part of the Investigator Department, despite his current job of a archive keeper, poor Hedwig would also need to pass an additional bunch of exams – on the upside, she'll get a military rank, probably that of a sergeant, out of it...

But, whatever, right now it was too early to worry about things like that. Instead, Hayate kept wondering what Yuki-chan would be like. Harry, in addition to that, was also worrying about just how much of the Hedwig he knew and loved would remain within the new her. No, he rationally knew that she was supposed to retain a good deal of her memories as an owl and keep most of her original personality intact, but... One's fears were never the most rational of things, and the young Potter was scared that his feathered friend was actually dead and the unison device create from her Linker Core would be nothing more than a blank slate...

Reinforce and the Wolkenritter also were understandably curious about the twosome that would soon join their family, but they all – even the silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind, who might as well be a mother for Hedwig and Yuki – were far calmer than their young mistress and landlord, who seemed to be unable to find any place from worries that were eating them away.

Thankfully, the Grand Day was almost upon them already. Thus, all the questions, concerns and worries Hayate and Harry might have would be answered tomorrow. Those two just needed to show a little patience and wait for the beginning of the new day.

**~/ *** \~**

With Shamal and Zafira graciously agreeing to look after little Lutecia, everyone else was free to go to the Magitek Research Department and be there when Finieno-san finally allowed the two newborn unison devices meet their lords for the first time...

Arriving to the TSAB administrative center at the heart of the city at the appointed hour, the five members of the Yagami-Potter household were a bit surprised to find the meganekko Device Meister waiting for them at the department's atrium. Once the greetings were exchanged, she led them towards her laboratory, but had them stop in a hall just before it.

"Could you please wait there?" She asked. And as soon as she got everyone's agreement, she turned her attention solely to Reinforce. "I'd like you to come with me."

"O-Okay." The red-eyed beauty replied, not sure what the other woman had in mind. Nevertheless, she did as asked, and the two of them disappeared into Finieno-san's laboratory, leaving Harry, Hayate, Signum and Vita waiting for their return in the hall. Of course, the little Queen of the Night Sky was just too eager to meet Yuki-chan to wait patiently, but there was little else she could do as Reinforce refused to answer her mistress' telepathic questions...

A few long minutes passed, and Finieno-san finally emerged again from her laboratory.

"Congratulations, special investigator Potter, Yagami-san!" She said as she stepped into the hall where her 'guests' were waiting. "You have a pair of beautiful and healthy girls." Once those words left her mouth, Reinforce too stepped out of the lab, carrying supposedly-sleeping Hedwig and Yuki, both of them clad in identical white gowns, in her arms as if they were real newborn babies.

A few moments passed and the pair of miniature girls, finally tired of pretending to be asleep for the sake of the show, opened their eyes. Rising into the air and assuming the upright positions, the two of them looked round the gathered 'crowd'. Then...

"Harry-y-i-i!" The green-eyed teen heard as a whitish little missile launched herself at him, trying to wrap him in a hug as tiny tears filled her eyes. And he just stood there, a little dumbfounded, as his first friend, now in a new form, was pressing herself against his chest, her miniature head resting right over his heart. The young Potter wasn't sure how long it took him to recover his wits, but once he did, he carefully placed his hands over Hedwig's little body and gently pressed her even closer against his chest in a somewhat-awkward hug, while whispering her name softly.

The two of them stayed like that for what felt like hours, still not quite believing that this indeed was the reality and that they were together once again. Finally, assured that his once-feather friends was real and wasn't going to disappear right in front of him, Harry gently moved his hands away from her petite body. Hedwig, for her part, then floated back and upwards a little to get closer to her now-lord's eye level, thus finally letting him to take her new appearance in properly.

She was now a fairy-like girl, just under eight inches tall, and with body proportions of someone in late teens. Actually, Harry noticed absentmindedly, her new body looked a lot like Reinforce's, just scaled down and a bit less well-endowed... Anyway, Hedwig had owlishly-large amber eyes and ashen-white unruly hair – which actually looked like a bunch of ruffled feathers – that reached the middle of her back; her skin was fair but by no means truly pale, which was a small surprise for the young Potter as he was kind-of expecting her to be as pale as a ghost: birds can't really tan, after all.

He also noticed that the gown she was wearing at the moment was actually a real item, probably given to her by Finieno-san to preserve her decency, and not a barrier-jacket-like thing that Hedwig had constructed on her own. It actually was like she didn't have any designs for barrier jackets uploaded into her just yet; helping her create some, Harry decided, might actually be quite fun... Hayate-chan, being a fan of cosplay that she was, would definitely enjoy dressing Yuki-chan up!

Speaking of which, he still hasn't gotten a good look at his amber-eyed friend's new half-sister... Turning his head to the side, the young Potter searched for the other newborn unison device, eventually finding her surrounded by the four members of the Yagami family. Despite that, though, he could see her features pretty well.

She was a little shorter than Hedwig, probably just a little more than seven inches tall, and also rather younger, looking like she was in her early teens. She had waist-long bluish-white hair with a single lock stubbornly sticking from the top of her head; and somehow she was wearing a miniaturized copy of Hayate's hair decorations already. Her eyes were large and almost-unnaturally-azure in color and, unlike how it was with Hedwig, her skin was as pale as Reinforce's...

His further inspection of Yuki-chan's appearance was interrupted by a small zap of electricity to his side. Looking back at his owlish friend Harry saw her glaring lightly at him while tiny blue lightnings still cracked around her outstretched right hand.

"No checking my sister out, Ha-a-arry-kun!" She told him, actually sounding teasing rather than angry with him. Before he could have come up with an appropriate response to that, though, Finieno-san decided to take the floor once again:

"May I have a moment of your time, please?" The bespectacled girl said. Once everyone quieted down, she continued: "Now then... I've already registered both Hedwig and Yuki with the Bureau as devices, so you won't have to worry about that. Getting them registered as mages, however, couldn't have been done in this laboratory, and so is up to you." She informed them. There was a small pause, before she added: "Also, we still have their calibrations for both normal and unison modes ahead of us; so, if it's not a problem for you, please report to my lab next Wednesday after lunch."

"We will." Harry replied while Hayate and Reinforce nodded in agreement. "Is there anything else?" He asked then. Finieno-san grew thoughtful for a few moments, before giving him an answer:

"Not that I can think of right now. If I do recall something important I forgot to tell you now, I trust I can inform you over the phone." The young Potter gave her a nod of confirmation.

"Of course." He said. "And thank you for everything you've done for us."

"Don't mention it." The bespectacled Device Meister replied, waving her hand dismissively. "It was an interesting experience for me as well."

* * *

Before finally heading home, the Yagami-Potter family stopped by the Migration Services offices to make the first step in registering Hedwig and Yuki as mages with the TSAB: all of those mages had a citizenship too, after all. Even those who lived on the non-administered worlds when off duty, like Nanoha, had one in addition to their mages licenses...

The clerk that was guiding them through the process of creating new identity cards was a bit surprised when his actual clients turned out to be two fairy-like girls, but telling her that Hedwig and Yuki were unison devices seemed to answer all of the questions she was about to ask. Which was actually a bit surprising, seeing as how exceptionally rare unison devices were: until today, Reinforce had been _the only active one_ that the Bureau was aware of.

Of course, even if they both would stubbornly deny it, Hedwig and Yuki themselves were kind-of children. Thus, what were the chances of the two of them going through the registration procedures without making some sort of a row? The said row actually took place just a few moments after Harry had identified them as unison devices:

"The first since Gods-know-when!" Hedwig commented excitedly after her lord. Unfortunately, she could have worded that better as her azure-eyed sister (wrongly) assumed that she was appropriating the honorary 'title' of the older one in the pair all to herself – while they indeed had been laid down at different times, they were activated simultaneously.

"Hey!" Yuki-chan challenged her, her arms akimbo. "I'm the older one here, so I'm the first one!" The once-owl girl, of course, didn't want to agree with that and set her own position on the matter forth... Thankfully, Reinforce stepped in to pull her kids apart before their bickering would grow into an all-out shouting match. And with her watching over them more closely, the rest of the registration procedures went without any more such accidents.

**~/ *** \~**

Later that day, after the dinner, Harry decided that it was the time for a private heart to heart talk with his reincarnated friend. Partly because he still was afraid that she was Hedwig just in name... And while a lot of her memories were damaged – apparently, his failed attempt to convert her into his familiar had failed even worse than he had originally thought – the now-fairy-like-girl still remembered a lot of things no one but the two of them could have known about.

Like their time at Hogwarts, for example: the TSAB knew not about the magical community existing on their home world, the non-administered world #138. Or about the two-and-a-half summers they had spent under the Dursleys' roof. Or the things that happened behind the closed doors after Harry became a part of the Bureau... This made him really happy: his first and probably truest friend was once again with him. Hedwig might have changed her form, but she was still the Hedwig he knew and loved!

Another thing that the young Potter had been curious about was the sequence of the events that had led to her almost-death and subsequent change in the unison device she now was. Unfortunately for him, for whatever reason, the amber-eyed miniature girl barely had any intact memories of her last days as an owl. Whether because of the traumas she had experienced back then, or some other reason, all that she remembered was hunting in the mountains to the North-East of Cranagan, where she almost became a food for a local predator herself. Based on her descriptions, it looked like her attacker had indeed been a large – but not unnaturally so – wild mountain cat.

**~/ *** \~**

The next day, just after the breakfast, the ever-eager Hayate-chan retired to the living room where she buckled down to designing outfits for Yuki-chan, both of the casual variety and the ones that would be her knight's clothing. Reinforce and the Wolkenritter were also there, watching their mistress work and occasionally offering her a piece of advice on one thing or another.

Maybe an hour later – once little Lutecia got tired of playing and was put to bed – Harry and Hedwig joined them there, with the young Potter also taking a shot at designing various clothes for his amber-eyed friend. And he was very thankful to Reinforce for sharing her own collection of lingerie, scaled down appropriately of course, with their 'daughter' and, thus, saving him from the embarrassment of designing those for her himself. Judging by Hedwig's occasional reactions as she browsed through that data, there were some rather _interesting_ articles in there...

A couple of hours passed, and the two 'daughters' of the Yagami-Potter household now had numerous designs of clothes added to the 'virtual wardrobes' in their memory. And they wasted no time in changing out of the gowns Finieno-san had given them back at the laboratory. Yuki-chan was now wearing a rather plain black T-shirt, a knee-ling white skirt and a pair of whitish simple shoes. Hedwig, on the other hand, picked something a bit more attention-capturing to wear at the moment: white tank top with bold red tribal design printed on it, short blue jeans shorts and Greek-style brown sandals. In addition to that, she was now wearing a hair-clip over her left ear that had a pair of white feathers sticking backwards from it.

Their barrier jackets had also been decided upon. Yuki-chan's one ended up looking a lot like the one Reinforce wore, just mirrored from left to right; her mini-dress was also white instead of black and had a slightly-longer waist-cape attached to it. Hedwig, meanwhile, had settled for a knee-long robe-like white dress that was designed to look like it was made from feathers as her knight's clothes. That dress also had some silvery armor paddings over her chest and hips incorporated into it for extra protection.

Oh, and silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind had also promised to give her amber-eyed 'daughter' the designs for the Ground Forces uniform once she passed her mage ranking examination and the aptitude tests, thus becoming Harry's official partner and teammate.

**~/ *** \~**

On Wednesday afternoon Finieno-san began working on calibrating Hedwig and Yuki for the optimal performance. And the first thing she did was running a battery of various tests on the two of them to learn even more about how their personal magics worked. And some of the results she got were actually quite interesting.

For one, that lightning Hedwig had zapped Harry with wasn't a random occurrence; lightning was the element of her Mana Conversion Affinity. Furthermore, she could wield both Ancient Belkan magic and the one that fell under Harry's still-unnamed magic system. It was even reflected through her magical circle, which looked like an electric-blue Belkan triangle supplemented to a hexagonal 'circle' with the elements straight from her 'father's' own one. Not to mention that she turned out to be quite a powerful mage, not that much weaker than her lord. Once she knew more spell, she'll be able to achieve A-plus or maybe even double-A rank!

Her sister was no pushover either; Yuki-chan in fact had more raw power than her – not all that surprising seeing as her both 'mothers', Reinforce and Hayate, were such powerhouses. She, however, didn't have the advantage of being able to use spells from unconventional magic systems, instead being restricted to 'just' Belkan and Mid-Childan ones.

Also, while it didn't count as an official Mana Conversion Affinity for some reason, Yuki-chan was really really good with Ice-based spells. Hayate-chan must be a bit of a seer for how appropriately she had named her.

Some further test also showed that Hedwig was the superior one when it came to processing power. She was actually good enough to act both as a hybrid-intelligent device – by lending some of her processing power to her lord's main device – and an independent mage simultaneously, something that was beyond what half-sister's abilities. Finieno-san had hypothesized that the reason for this lay in the fact that Hedwig had been built around a Linker Core of an actual living being, instead of being a completely artificial creation. There was no proof for that hypothesis at the moment, though.

* * *

Three weeks and quite a few sessions later, Finieno-san was finally satisfied with how those two performed both as independent mages and as hybrid-intelligent devices meant to support their lords. Thus, the time for testing their unison modes came at last! Though, unlike how it was with the previous tests, Hedwig and Yuki would be tested separately here: the laboratory just didn't have the necessary equipment to analyze the two lord-device pairs simultaneously. And Harry with his amber-eyed friend – and now, technically, a daughter too – were the first ones to be tested.

"Well, here goes nothing." The teenaged Earthling mumbled under his breath as the two of them stepped into a magical scanner. "Hedwig!" He called then. "**Unison in!**" Nodding in acknowledgment, the owlish girl reverted her form to that of just her Linker Core, a glowing orb of electric-blue light, which, he noted, was noticeably larger and more stable than it was when he had failed to make her his familiar... Meanwhile, Hedwig merged herself into her lord's body, while establishing the connections between both their magic and their minds.

Having someone share his body was quite an unusual sensation, the young Potter had to admit. A possession, he supposed, would be the closest equivalent to this. Unlike a possession, though, unison didn't take the control over his body and his magic from him; even if Hedwig actually could do that if it was absolutely needed. Her mind, however, wasn't the only thing that had been added to him; there also was her magic. And it felt a little bit ticklish, probably because of her lightning Mana Conversion Affinity, but beyond that, he actually could commandeer her mana as if it was his own. He wasn't quite sure, whether this was natural for unison more, or it was so because Hedwig's Linker Core included a splinter of his own, but, whatever...

As for his appearance, the unison also changed it. As messy as his hair normally was, it became even more unruly now. The color also changed, shifting from raven-black towards steeple gray. His eyes changed as well: while still green, they were now rather yellowish, instead of their usual emerald color. His barrier jacket remained the usual dark-blue, though.

'_So, this is the unison mode..._' The green-eyed teen thought to himself, trying to consciously include his once-feathered partner into that 'himself'. Probably unsurprisingly, she had 'heard' him.

'_Seems so, Harry._' Was her reply. Apparently, she needed to get used to this as well.

"Alright." Finieno-san said as she looked away from her monitors for a moment. "I don't see anything that could be immediately dangerous, so why don't you go ahead and try casting some spells." There was moment-long pause, before she jokingly added: "Preferably those that won't destroy the lab." Nodding, Harry summoned a ball of light on the palm of his hand. However, since he was 'suddenly' dealing with nearly twice the usual amount of mana, he did overpower his spell a little. He was quick to correct that, though, while also promising himself to improve his control over magic.

"Here you go." He said, waiting for the bespectacled Device Meister to finish analyzing the effects of his unison with Hedwig on his spells.

"Well,.. Aside from what you can see yourself..." Finieno-san said, referring to him inadvertently overpowering his spell. "You reaction time delay is roughly a quarter of a millisecond. This is the first unison I've ever observed, but I'd say that this is pretty good." Reinforce, who so far had been silently observing the tests, nodded in agreement. Her own delay with her past master – the ones that she actually got a chance to unison with – actually had a bit greater delays. Then again, unlike her 'daughter', she wasn't built for just one specific person...

* * *

As it turned out, while they were in unison, Hedwig could have her own magical energy restored directly from the 'Heart of the stars' – that class four reactor-type Lost Logia that was stuck in her lord's chest. In other words, their unison all but doubled the amount of mana Harry could use without fear of his reserves ever running dry.

This drastically increased effective mana throughput, coupled with the ability to wield 'conventional' Belkan magic he gained while in unison, was enough to rank the green-eyed Potter up into an S-ranked mage. Maybe even an S-plus ranked one!

Their unison was a perfect something, though. Keeping it up put some strain on both Harry and Hedwig, even when they weren't throwing powerful magic left, right and center. Even worse than that, the fatigue wouldn't show until after the two of them separated, and when they did it would hit them both mercilessly with its full power. According to Reinforce, fatigue itself was normal, how fast it built up and how strong it was, though, was not. This might be caused by some imperfection in Hedwig's design – the original technology for the creation of unison devices had been lost when the world of Belka fell; Finieno-san had to puzzle it back together – or by her Linker Core retaining some properties of a familiar's one, there was no way to know...

And, at least in Harry's mind, there was one more downside to the unison mode. While it did provide him with a considerable boost in raw power and even improved his casting speed a bit further, it also halved the number of spells he and Hedwig could unleash: after all, his once-feather friend needed to be outside of him to act as an independent mage... And, oftentimes, two weaker spells were better than one stronger one, if only because they could be fired in two different directions...

Thus, in the end, the green-eyed teen decided that the unison mode was worth it only when he really needed to take some really tough opponent quickly. Otherwise, Hedwig supporting him as a hybrid-intelligent device through synchronization mode was preferable.

**~/ *** \~**

By the time the last week of July rolled around, Finieno-san had finally ran out of tests to put the two young unison devices and their lords through. And since she hadn't found anything that appeared to be clearly malfunctioning, the bespectacled Device Meister could only wish Yuki and Hedwig good luck as she finally cleared them for service in TSAB armed forces.

Thus, the of the first days of August, they finally took their mage ranking examinations, through which they both achieved the ranks of A-plus aerial mages. With that formality out of the way, the two sisters began treading their separate life paths.

Hedwig went ahead and successively tacked the Ground Forces and the Investigator Division aptitude tests, earning the position of Harry's aide by the end of the month, while also getting a promotion to the rank of sergeant along the way... Her azure-eyed half-sister meanwhile chose to follow her master Hayate, whose legs had finally healed enough for her to no longer require crutches, into the military academy and attended the lessons there alongside with her.

Not everyone was truly happy about that, though. The ever-cheerful and very friendly Yuki-chan had quickly become little Lutecia's most favorite playmate, and the lavender-haired girl missed her a lot when she and Hayate were away at the academy...

**~/ *** \~**

Late in November, a group of archeologists discovered an ancient and powerful Lost Logia on one of the currently-uninhabited worlds near the edge of the space administered by the Bureau. And since all of the signs pointed towards more of those being scattered across the planet they were exploring, a danger of some inter-dimensional criminal group taking the archeologist team over and forcing them to excavate the remaining Lost Logias for their own benefit was actually quite real.

The TSAB reacted to their plea for help almost immediately by redeploying the Air Force's Fifth Expeditionary Wing to that world to act as a protection detail. And Vita and Nanoha-chan were a part of that wing. It was, of course, okay with the red-haired Knight of the Hammer, who was a professional soldier despite her childish appearance and, oftentimes, personality; but Harry had wonder how Nanoha, a twelve years old girl who had a family waiting for her and a school to attend, would handle being sent on a mission like this. But, whatever...

According to the messages Vita regularly sent back home, everything had been quiet for quite some time and the biggest threat they had faced was some random wild animal that foolishly wandered into the humans' camp. Then, just after the New Year, things had taken turn for the worst...

It was actually a call from the TSAB headquarters – which, unless you worked there, rarely was a good thing to begin with – that informed the members of the Yagami-Potter household about a battle that had taken place between the Bureau's forces and Jail Scaglietti's gadget drones. While, thankfully, there were no causalities, quite a few mages ended up been wounded severely. And their friends were among them... Vita, being tough as a nail, would need only a week or so of staying at the hospital to completely recover from her physical wounds. Her mental state, though, would take much longer to heal as the Knight of the Hammer was showing strong symptoms of PTSD, mostly in the form of the survivor's guilt.

The reason for that was poor Nanoha. While neither Harry nor Hayate knew the details of what had happened on that remote world, they both have heard about the wounds their ever-cheerful friend had sustained. And it was nothing short of a miracle that the 'White Devil' managed to survive back there: she suffered numerous stab wounds that led to a blood loss and a rather nasty frostbite – the battle did take place on a snowy field in a storm – as well as a partial collapse of her Linker Core.

As terrible as those injuries sound, there still was a hope that Nanoha will somehow manage to pull through. The chances of that happening weren't great, though – being bound to a wheelchair for the rest of her life with no more magic was a more likely end for the brunette – but neither her friends, nor the doctors at the hospital were giving the hope for the better up yet.

Nanoha's family aside, Fate-chan took the news the hardest. Within a mere week of learning about learning her friend's fate, the red-eyed blonde temporarily suspended herself from the Enforcer training program, despite being less than two months away from graduating, and now spent one week at the TSAB HQ hospital, sitting at the head of Nanoha's bed next to Vita, and the next one on the Earth, probably doing her best to help the Takamachi family overcome almost losing their daughter.

**~/ *** \~**

Administered world #56, like a few others, was a cultural reservation area, and because of that the presence of the TSAB on this planet was rather minimal. And since its local population was well below a milliard as well, majority of the area here was nothing more than an unexplored wilderness.

Thus, when a never-seen-before magical circle of a bronze-orange color randomly flashed into existence on the edge of a cliff, no one was there to witness it. But that suited the teenaged girl that appeared out of that circle via a modified **Dimensional Transfer** spell just fine. Looking round to make sure that there were no dangers lurking in the shadow, ready to strike her the moment she showed even a phantom sign of weakness, this girl got down to work.

Summoning a holographic display, she quickly connected to the TSAB public network. From there, it was just a matter of time for her to hack into the private communication channels. That done, the girl began searching for the location of a certain intelligent device, actually using its core's unique identification codes for that. Surprisingly enough, the search soon revealed that the device she was looking for was currently on the non-administered world #97, in Uminari city.

Her work done for the moment, the mysterious girl dismissed the displays she was using up to now and stared into the distance. A rather-bloodthirsty smile then crept on her face, while the opaque-red visor hiding her eyes gleamed sinisterly in the rays of an evening sun.

"Enjoy you last days, Fake..." She said barely above a whisper, addressing to the owner of that device, even if the said owner most definitely couldn't hear her. "...For I'm coming to end you." And as she made that declaration, she subconsciously switched the device she herself was using into its basic combat form of a bullwhip...

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	28. The great face off

The twenty eighth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**Jose19**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Opinr**, **FateBurn**, **lordamnesia**, **Reishin Amara**, **davycrockett100**, **ultima-owner**, **vampireharry the 2**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Tolotos**, thanks, and as I wrote in my PM, yes, you got it right.  
**Impstar**, I've answered your review via PM.  
**roughstar333**, and when the heroes ARE truly prepared for the troubles they are facing? Aside from those that are God-mode and Sues, of course?  
**Number III**, throwing things against walls isn't a good habit, man. You can end up breaking those things. Or the walls...  
**Penny is wise**, yeah, Hedwig is back and better than ever!

*** AN**: Let the great battle commence!

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XXVII****I: The great face off**

With Fate-chan about to depart for the non-administered world #97 for the second time, Hayate-chan suddenly got an urge to go there herself. Both to catch up with the friends there, and just to visit her home world and her home town. Alas, it looked like out of the entire Yagami only reinforce and Yuki-chan would be able to accompany her there: among the Wolkenritter, only Vita could plausibly take a long leave at the moment, but the petite redhead absolutely refused to leave Nanoha's side, apparently still blaming herself for the fate that befell the 'White Devil'.

Then, an idea occurred to Harry that it might be pretty cool for him and little Lutecia to take a small vacation away from Cranagan or even Min-Childa altogether. And since the non-administered world #97 was as good place for that as any for that, he decided that the two of them plus Hedwig could tag along with the Yagami family. Especially since it looked like neither Reinforce nor Hayate-chan herself had any problems with this.

Getting all of the required permissions for this trip – especially the one from the Social Services – took him some time, but before long he had all of the necessary documents ready. Too bad, by then the vessel ferrying Fate-chan had departed from the Bureau headquarters already... Thankfully, that wasn't going to be too much of a problem for them as the non-administered world #97 was located not too far away from one of the trading routes and finding a merchant captain that would agree to make a small detour there for a compensation wasn't all that hard.

That proximity to a trading route was the reason why the TSAB had a whole battleship observing the planet most of the time, even if it wasn't technologically advanced or had a lot of mages living on it. The majority of other non-administered worlds, on the other hand, were only checked up on by cruiser-class investigative vessels about once or twice a month... But enough about that.

With all of the documents ready, a ride acquired and things packed, Hayate-chan, Reinforce, Harry and Lutecia, as well as Yuki-chan and Hedwig too departed for the Earth, the non-administered world #97.

**~/ *** \~**

Having finally arrived to the Uminari city a few hours before the dinner, there wasn't much that they had accomplished that day beyond putting the Yagami residence back in order. Well, it was mostly Hayate and Reinforce who did all the work with Hedwig and Yuki occasionally giving them a helping hand; Harry spent most of that evening watching over Lu-chan, who was fascinated by the snow and kept playing in it in the house's backyard.

The next day was a Saturday, which meant no school. Thus, the little Queen of the Night Sky decided to devote the morning hours to reconnecting with her friends, Alisa Bannings and Suzuka Tsukimura. Reinforce and Yuki-chan were, of course, accompanying her; the latter one in a special bag to avoid attracting too much attention from the local muggles to herself. And since he was a bit familiar with those girls himself – he was there when those two inadvertently learned about the existence of magic, after all – Harry decided to tag along as well, bringing Lulu and Hedwig along with him, of course. Fate-chan was also invited to this little get together, and the blond enforcer-in-training said that she'll definitely come...

* * *

This little social gathering took place at Tsukimura-san's mansion, and, all things considered, it went well. Sure, to Harry it sometimes felt like Alisa and Suzuka were gushing over how cute Lutecia and the fairy-like unison devices were more than actually catching up with Hayate-chan, but... By the time they needed to part their ways for the day late in the afternoon, the girls looked much satisfied, so did that really matter in the end?

And even though they had had a great lunch not that long ago, the mistress of the Tome of the Night Sky decided that she wanted to have some afternoon tea before finally returning home. And thus the members of the Yagami-Potter family all headed towards the Midori-ya cafe. Fate-chan wasn't accompanying them there, though: citing that there were some pressing matters that she needed to deal with, the blond girl disappeared towards the Harlaown residence almost as soon as they left the Tsukimura mansion...

"Good afternoon, Takamachi-san!" Hayate called as soon as she stepped inside the cafe.

"Long time no see, Hayate-chan." Nanoha's mother responded moments later from behind the counter. For whatever unfathomable reason the cafe was mostly empty at the moment, so there was nothing to stop her from having a small talk with the lively brunette that was one of her daughter's friends. "And welcome to Midori-ya,.. uhm... Reinforce-san, Potter-san." She added after a few moments, finally recalling the names of the two 'adults'.

And as she brought the menus to the table the group occupied, Momoko finally noticed the small lavender-haired girl sleeping in Harry's arms – previously the green-eyed mage had been standing a step behind the Yagami ladies, making Takamachi-san unable to see anything but his head. And as she saw little Lutecia, the master of the cafe raised her eyes to those of the young Potter, asking him a silent question. And not in the most friendly way either.

"I'm only her guardian and foster parent." Harry replied trying not to show how much the woman before him was intimidating him. "Her father has been KIA and her mother, a good friend and a teacher of mine, is currently in coma." He added. While not exactly the truth in case of Mr. Alpine, it was better than trying to explain the whole situation with Lutecia's kidnapping.

"Oh... Sorry." Mrs. Takamachi replied after an uneasy pause.

"Nah, don't worry about that." the young Potter replied, waving his free hand dismissively. Indeed, this was not the first time someone had assumed that Lu-chan was his blood daughter. There was another pause, before he confided: "Actually, since about a month ago this little one began sometimes calling me 'papa' herself. And I'm pretty sure I know _whom_ she is copying here."

"And who might that be, _papa_?" Hedwig asked playfully as she peeked out of Hayate's bag. Yuki-chan was also looking out of that bag, though she remained quiet at the moment...

"Ah!" Momoko exclaimed, certainly startled by the sudden 'appearance' of the two unison devices. And the fairy-like half-sisters could see that themselves.

"Um... Sorry about that." The amber-eyed owlish girl apologized, before letting out a small nervous laugh. Next to her, Yuki-chan offered her own apology to Takamachi-san. The little Queen of the Night Sky then let out a small sigh, before getting the unison devices out of her bag.

"Guess, introductions are in order, huh?" She said as Hedwig gracefully floated across the table and perched herself on her lord's right shoulder.

"Yes please." Momoko-san said after a small pause.

"I'm lord Hayate's unison device, Yuki ...Yagami." The blue-eyed miniature ice-mage said as she flew a circle around her lord's outstretched hand. Takamachi-san raised her eyebrow upon hearing the fairy-like girl call Hayate 'lord', but decided not to comment on it, recalling Nanoha's magical staff calling her 'master' in quite a similar manner.

"This little cutie is Lutecia Alpine, my foster daughter." Harry introduced the lavender-haired girl sleeping in his arms. Then he raised his right hand to gently caress the amber-eyed 'fairy' sitting on his shoulder: "And this is Hedwig and she too is a unison device. She is also my partner within the Bureau and hold the rank of sergeant in Ground Forces." The master of the Midori-ya cafe let out a long 'o-oh' sound, before something clicked in her head:

"Wait, weren't you a private back then?" She asked.

"Yeah, I was, but quite a lot had happened since then... I'm a warrant officer of the Investigator Division now." Seeing a bit of confusion on the woman's face, the green-eyed mage expounded: "Investigators are something in between detectives and SWAT operatives for the TSAB. Haven't Fate-chan told you all this already?"

"Ah... I see..." Momoko said after a small pause. "It must have slipped from my mind. Still, congratulations on you promotion."

"Thank you." Harry replied. "But, why don't we get something nice for our afternoon tea first? Then we can go on with our conversation." He asked then, getting the nods of agreement from his companions.

**~/ *** \~**

Something wasn't quite right here, enforcer-in-training Fate Testarossa-Harlaown decided as she approached her home: the nearby streets were devoid of people despite the January sun being still pretty high in the skies. That, and she was getting an unexplainable, almost intuitive, sensation that something bad was going to happen very soon...

Indeed, not a minute later her instincts suddenly cried for her move. And she did. Which was a very good thing as moments later a bunch of bronze-orange magical projectiles, each the size of a short spear, tore through the space she had been occupying a moment ago. Looking upwards, Fate immediately noticed her attacker, not that they were trying to hide in the first place... Their appearance, though, almost paralyzed the red-eyed beauty with shock.

Her attacker looked like an older and _darker_ version of herself: she was a girl of about fifteen years old with waist-long golden hair and a face that was virtually identical to Fate's own one. And while this girl's eyes were hidden behind a sinister opaque-red visor, the enforcer-in-training somehow had no doubts that those eyes would be of the same burgundy-red color as hers. To make everything even more unsettling, this girl was wielding a bullwhip-shaped device that Fate unfortunately was quite intimately familiar with. In her left hand. ...At least their clothes were quite different, as otherwise it would have been too much for the rear admiral Harlaown's adopted daughter...

The barrier jacket of this mysterious not-clone of hers consisted of a dangerously-short and completely-sleeveless dark-blue top with some silvery armor padding under the girls' (quite sizable) breasts; a strangely-designed short mini-skirt of the same color with tassets sewn onto it; boots that were more metal armor than normal fabric; dark-blue over-knee socks with greaves-like armor plates strapped to them; and a pair of similarly-dark-blue fingerless gloves, also with armor plates that covered the top of her hands attached to them.

Despite looking like something a Belkan knight specializing in unarmed melee would wear, this barrier jacket left a lot of the mysterious girl's skin clearly visible. And creeping across that bare skin there were angular blood-red lines of magical corruption. Just like the ones Reinforce had had when the berserk Defense Program had taken over her, only even more numerous... If that indeed was so, then trying to reason with her not-clone up there would be nothing more than a waste of time. Against someone who was so thoroughly controlled by darkness, combat was the only way to resolve the situation here. And yet...

"Alicia?" Fate asked in a loud whisper, trying to reach the girl whom she subconsciously recognized as her older sister and, well, her prototype. Unfortunately, it didn't look like they would have peaceful talks any time soon.

"Die, Fake." The not-clone of hers said in an empty voice.

「**Plasma Javelin!**」 The mysterious girl's device announced at the same time. A moment later, a dozen of bronze-orange magical spears was already speeding towards Fate through the air. A mere second after that the might-be-Alicia leaped off the roof, raising her now surrounded with angry lightnings whip for a powerful strike.

Breaking out of her stupor, the blond enforcer-in-training hastily jumped to the side. Still, that was barely enough to avoid being impaled with those **Plasma Javelins**. A moment later she was thrown across the street by a shockwave from the lightning lash hitting the ground as it missed her by just a couple of feet.

"Bardiche, get set!" Fate ordered as she got back on her feet, her eyes never leaving her opponent. Still, she couldn't help but let out a mental whistle at the amount of damage that last attack did: there now was a smoking hundred feet long and foot deep gash in the asphalt of the carriageway. Had something like that actually connected with her...

「Yes, sir!」 Her device replied mechanically as it summoned her barrier jacket while simultaneously switching into its base active form of, well, a bardiche axe. 「**Round shield!**」 It announced a moment later as another pack of **Plasma Javelins** were speeding towards its master. And despite Fate pumping as much of her mana as she could into the shield, it barely held against the attack of her lookalike. Then, just as the last of the magical spears fizzled out, two magical circles unlike anything Ms. Testarossa-Harlaown had ever seen appeared next her opponent. A moment later, a pair of serpent-like dragons made entirely out of golden and purple lightnings exploded out of those circles, hungrily speeding towards the blond enforcer-in-training.

"Bardiche, send a SOS signal to Reinforce and Phoenix Claw!" Fate called as she shot into the air in an attempt to avoid being devoured by the lightning dragons. '_I don't think we can win this just by ourselves._' She added in her thoughts. '_Let's hope we can last long enough for the cavalry to arrive..._'

「Yes, sir!」 Was Bardiche's response.

**~/ *** \~**

Takamachi-san just walked away from their table, having brought them their orders, when Reinforce suddenly jolted as if something had greatly startled. And a single moment later Harry's device, Phoenix Claw, sent him a mental nudge, informing him about an incoming message. And, of course, the silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind was the first one to 'read' her message:

"It looks like Testarossa is in trouble." She announced to everyone at their table. "I have no idea what is going on out there, but she must be in some really big mess if she's using an automated message instead of contacting us directly." She added as the young Potter finally summoned a holographic display with the same automated SOS message from Fate-chan on it.

"We have to help her then." Harry resolved. Reinforce made a nod of agreement: the red-eyed enforcer-in-training was a good friend of theirs and they would never condemn her to going through a dire situation all alone when giving her a helping hand is within their abilities. "Go ahead." The dark-haired young man continued before nodding towards little Lutecia sleeping in his arms. "We'll catch up with you soon."

"Of course." The avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky replied as got out of the table. Then she all but dashed out of Midori-ya, likely heading towards the nearest back alley she could covertly teleport to Fate-chan's location from... Meanwhile, Harry turned his attention to her young mistress:

"Hayate-chan." He said. "Could you please look after Lu-chan for me?" The said girl raised her eyebrow upon hearing his request.

"I'm not going?" She asked, at least somewhat offended by being denied a chance to help her friend.

"Hayate-chan..." The green-eyed Potter said then. "We both know that you are strong, but... Are you really ready to face whatever made even Fate-chan ask for help, in such a way?" The young Queen of the Night Sky grimaced, but had to admit that he had a point there. While undoubtedly a great powerhouse, she lacked the experience to wield that power effectively. And even though Reinforce and Shamal had been teaching her for the past couple of months, those lessons were mostly theoretical; she had gone through only so many spars and never fought a real battle where her life itself might be at the stake. Maybe, it would really be for the best if Harry went to help Fate-chan today...

"Fine." She said after making a deep sigh.

"Thank you." The green-eyed teen replied, before carefully handing Lutecia over to her. "I owe you one for this." Then, he turned his attention to Hedwig, who had been perched on his shoulder all this time. "Let's go." His miniature partner nodded, and the two of them got going.

**~/ *** \~**

Fate barreled to the side, barely avoiding a collision with a building, as she did her best to avoid yet another barrage of magical spear her opponent was trying to skewer her with. She then returned fire with a handful of her **Plasma Lances**, yet those were once again easily stopped by her not-clone's shield. At least that made that mysterious girl stop unleashing more attacks for a moment...

Alas for the blond enforcer-in-training, just a couple of seconds later her visor-wearing opponent seized the initiative back for herself: a pair of her magical circles manifested themselves on the walls of the buildings between which Fate was currently hovering. Thus, to avoid being shredded by those lightning dragons, the younger blonde had to stop bombarding her opponent with **Plasma Lances** and hastily dive towards the ground. That, however, brought her back in the range of the whip attacks; something that the unidentified girl didn't hesitate to take advantage of.

Somehow, through sheer luck, Fate managed to avoid being hit by that as well. Too bad, it forced her into a position from which she couldn't move anywhere quickly enough. Thus, when her not-clone began raining **Plasma Javelins** upon her again, all that she could do was setting up her shielding spell and hope it lasts long enough...

The shield managed to withstand the first four or five impacts, but shattered when the next magical spear connected with it. And the red-eyed enforcer-in-training still wasn't in a position to dodge the incoming attacks effectively... Closing her eyes, Fate instinctively guarded her face with her hands as she waited for pain to come. A few seconds passed, yet nothing happened... Carefully lowering her guard as she opened her eyes, the younger blonde found a white Belkan shield rotating lazily in the air a few inches in front of her.

"Are you alright, Testarossa?" A voice spoke from behind. Turning her head to look for the source of that voice, Fate saw Reinforce hovering a few feet above the scarred carriageway on her six black feathery wings.

"I'm fine." She replied. And it was not too far away from the truth: despite her barrier jacket being quite damaged, she herself had suffered only a few scrapes and bruises here and there. "Thanks for saving me just now." The silver-haired avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky waved her hand dismissively in response, thus saying that it was okay.

"Harry-kun and Hedwig are coming too. They should be there in a minute." Reinforce informed her then. "Meanwhile... **Gefängnis der Magie!**" A moment later reddish-yellow sphere expanded from her, covering the surrounding area and partially phasing it out of the reality as those without magic saw it. With this barrier in place, muggles won't be affected by the ongoing battle anymore; even if the whole area got leveled through their exchange of spells, the 'real world' would not suffer any damage.

The visor-wearing girl then tried to take her opponents out with another, bigger barrage of magical spears, but all of those were stopped by Reinforce's shield with little problem. Then, the Lady of the Blessed Wind released a whole bunch of Belkan runic arrays that quickly spread towards the whip-wielding blonde, slithering along every available surface. Once they were close enough, numerous chains exploded from those arrays, binding their target securely.

However, just as the silver-haired beauty began charging up the **Ragnarök** breaker, Fate's not-clone let out a deafening wail accompanied by a powerful shockwave of mana exploding outwards from her body. The chains that were binding her lasted only for a few moment, before snapping and getting blown away. Without missing a beat, the mysterious girl then summoned one humongous lightning dragon and threw it at Fate and Reinforce.

A second later two mighty spells collided. And after a power struggle that lasted for a couple of moments, **Ragnarök** won. Alas, whatever power it still had in it after that was not enough to really break through the visor-wearing girl's shield.

As the aftereffects of that power struggle were dying down, Fate observed her opponent from the relative safety high in the air. And she did notice something interesting. The lines of corruption creeping across her lookalike's skin were now both thicker and more numerous. What's more, that girl now had trickles of blood escaping from the corners of her mouth, from her nose and even from under the visor. And those weren't the result of Reinforce's attack; merely fighting this battle seemed to be killing the older blonde! Not that the curse allowed her to realize that: it had completely taken over her mind and was forcing her to keep trying to carry her task out no matter the cost.

"We need to finish this quickly." Fate said, just loud enough for her silver-haired ally to hear her. Reinforce nodded, before relaying this message to Harry and Hedwig, who were entering the battlegrounds from the whip-wielding blonde's rearward. But since they were too far away, the young enforcer-in-training couldn't see them acknowledging her request...

At least, until the green-eyed teen released a small swarm of magical bullets towards the visor-wearing teenaged girl. His owlish partner wasn't standing aside either and added a number of bright-blue orbs cracking with angry lightnings into the mix.

Not to be outdone by them just like that, Fate fired a barrage of **Photon Lances**... Alas, the mysterious girl she had been fighting for the last ten or so minutes merely surrounded herself with shields; and those shields successfully blocked the array of incoming spells with a frustrating ease.

"Resound the horn of the end." Reinforce finished chanting meanwhile. "**Ragnarök!**" A triple beam of magical energy then erupted from the Belkan triangle hovering in front of her. And after a few moments of power struggle, this attack managed to overwhelm the visor-wearing blonde's shields and completely hid her from everyone's view behind the thick curtain of raging destructive energies...

However, as the dust clouds began settle down, everyone much to their shock saw that even such a spell was not enough to down their opponent. Her visor might be crushed, her barrier jacket torn and even her very body broken, but the curse was still making her get back up on her feet unsteadily and get ready to keep fighting. Even worse, the lines corruption that covered her skin still were getting thicker and more numerous – something that spelled no good to either her herself, or to the Bureau-aligned mages.

As she stood up properly, the whip-wielding blonde removed new now-useless visor, thus allowing her opponents to see her eyes for the first time. Just like the Fate had predicted back at the beginning of the battle, they were of the same burgundy-red color as hers. Though, probably thanks to the curse overwriting her consciousness, they lacked the natural spark of life in them... There was no more doubt about it in Fate's mind: somehow this girl was indeed her supposedly-dead sister, Alicia.

And seeing as she was fighting this battle primarily because the ugly curse was making her to, the young enforcer-in-training's resolve to end the fight without either of them dying a violent death grew stronger than ever before. Yet, seeing the condition her sister was in – the tears of blood she was 'crying'; whites of her eyes actually turning pink from the hundreds of capillaries in them bursting under the extreme stress; more blood leaking from her nose and from the corners of her mouth; hell, her entire body breaking down under the stress the curse was putting it through – she knew that she had to act fast and be decisive if she wanted to stop Alicia before it was too late to save her.

"Let's do it, Bardiche." Fate commanded as soon as she loaded a new set of cartridges into her device's loader. "Zanber form!" Acknowledging the order with its customary response, Bardiche shifted its form into that of a zweihänder's handle. A moment later, the blade made from pure golden mana appeared, thus completing the device's transformation in a huge two-handed sword. Wasting no time, the red-eyed enforcer-in-training got ready to unleash her most powerful solo attack: "**Plasma Zanber!**"

「Yes, sir!」 Her device replied. Then it started emptying the cartridges, each of which made the cloud of mana surrounding the sword's blade grow thicker and heavier. And once enough mana was gathered, Fate shaped it into a thick golden beam of raw power that she directed at the curse-controlled Alicia. Reinforce, meanwhile, tried to bind the older blonde again, while preparing a swarm of magical bullets at the same time.

Alas, the binding part worked now about as well as it did the previous time: the whip-wielding teen let out an ear-piercing wail as she released a powerful shockwave of mana that tore the bindings restraining her apart. It also – somehow – managed to redirect Fate's bombardment spell away, rendering it useless and harmless. A moment later, Reinforce's bullets came, but curse-controlled girl already had her shield up to ward them off.

Suddenly there was an explosion of light. A moment later nearly a hundred projectiles began descending from the skies in some quite elaborate fashion as they all homed towards Alicia. She of course tried to create more shields to protect herself from those, but Harry – now gray-haired as he had entered unison with Hedwig – quickly wrapped her with as many of his own bindings as he could, effectively rendering her unable to do anything for a few moments.

Too bad, that didn't last long enough and with another wail the whip-wielding blonde broke those apart while the expanding shockwave caused the descending bullets to explode prematurely. However, that attack of the young Potter still did its bit: it had distracted Alicia for long enough for Reinforce to stealthily close in on her from behind and slap a temporary power limiter on her.

That seemed to forcing the curse into fighting against this limiter instead of making the girl it was controlling battle the mages around her. Unfortunately for the Bureau-aligned group, though, after just a few seconds the magical corruption began eating through that limiter, trying to free itself from this restrain. And it was quite good at it too.

"**Inhibitor Seal!**" Harry called as he added a power limiter of his own over the one placed on Alicia by the silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind... Well, calling that crude thing a 'power limiter' might be a bit too much, but this seal still was quite effective: it created some nasty interference in the spell matrices, thus making the spells exponentially harder to create or maintain.

It seemed to work on the mysterious curse that controlled Alicia as well. While it couldn't completely stop its attempts to break free of the restrains Reinforce had placed over it, Harry's seal managed to weaken those attempts significantly. Seeing that, the avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky added another power limiter right next to the first one. And then the third one when it turned out that two was still not enough to seal the curse away.

Finally, with two more power limiters, the curse and magical corruption finally released Alicia out of their clutches, letting her broken and bleeding, unconscious body collapse on the ground. In a blink of an eye, Fate was beside her sister.

"Heal her." She pleaded to Reinforce.

"Is it wise?" Was the response of the silver-haired lady. The young blonde replied nothing; instead she merely stared the ageless woman down determinately. This lasted for a few seconds; then the avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky let out a sigh as she lowered her eyes. "Very well, Testarossa, I'll do it." She said, kneeling next to Alicia as a greenish spell-formula most likely of Shamal's design began glowing around her hands. "But what are you going to do next? What we did tonight isn't permanent. Without correct countermeasures, the curse we all have fought here will return. And there are no guarantees that next time it won't take your life, or that of your sister..." Making a small pause, she repeated the question: "So, Testarossa, what are you going to do?"

"I... I don't know." Fate replied. "But I will do everything I can to save her. I will save my sister!" She proclaimed. Calming down a little after a sudden burst of emotions, she continued: "I've already contacted my mother. She should arrive the day after tomorrow, likely along with Chrono-nii-san and "Arthra". They might be able to do something about this curse..." Here, Reinforce made a thoughtful face, before shaking her head.

"I wouldn't be so sure... Even I, someone who had millenniums worth of knowledge, can't decipher the true nature of this curse. It is not something of either Mid-Childan or Belkan origin. And if what you've told us about your mother and your sister is true, we may be dealing with genuine Al-Hazardian magic here. It's something that already was nothing more than mere legends when I was created." Now, that didn't sound encouraging at all... If Reinforce herself couldn't perceive the origin of this corruptive curse and understand its inner workings, what chance the lesser mages stood?

"I'm still going to fight for my sister until the end." The young blonde resolved.

"Then, let us hope that this is a battle we can win." This was followed by a long pause, during which no one said a word. Finally, after what felt like hours, Reinforce herself broke the silence. "Anyway, let's move ...to a different place." She said as she stood up, unconscious and still worse for wear Alicia in her arms. After taking a single step forward, she stopped and looked around the utterly devastated street they were in. Granted, most of this damage existed only within the dimensional bubble that her **Gefängnis der Magie** barrier had created, but... Some of that damage still came from before the barrier had been deployed, and thus would not disappear with it. "Hold her for me." She said next, addressing to Fate. The young blonde nodded, before taking her sister from her.

"Of course." Now free of her burden, the silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind knelt to place her hand on the ground. Then, through the manipulation of both her barrier as well as the very matter their surroundings were made of, she began doing her best to fix the damage the today's battle had caused... It was a fast process, but a few minutes later, most of the destruction was reverted...

"Alright." Said Reinforce as she stood back up. Then, nodding towards Alicia in Fate's arms, she continued: "There are still have quite a few things we need to do about her... Your apartment should meet our demands alright, Testarossa. Let's go." And a round of nods later, the Bureau-affiliated mages got a move on...

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	29. The sisters

The twenty ninth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**Jose19**, just to remind you (and everyone else) once again that Harry's Earth and Nanoha's are different worlds here. As for the rest of your question... Harry and Reinforce are going to eventually drift apart a little, not too much, though, and the two of them will still be doing it every once in a while.  
**davycrockett100**, **FateBurn**, **god of all**, **Opinr**, **vampireharry the 2**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**roughstar333**, no idea why. Maybe because aside from knowing who will win there, you also could easily predict how (the sealing of Alicia's curse)?  
**ultima-owner**, the previous chapter haven't shown all of the curse's nastiness.  
**Joshua The Evil Guy**, I've answered your review via PM.  
**A Brilliant Loser**, I wasn't aware of that.

*** AN**: The pictures for the runic circles - Harry's, Hedwig's and Alicia's - as well as the image of Alicia herself (sans the visor) can now be accessed through the google doc linked in my profile.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XXIX****:** **The sisters**

"Ugh..." Alicia groaned as she slowly regained consciousness. And even if she were to ignore dull pains all over her body and the throbbing headache, her body still felt wrong somehow... It just wasn't quite the same she was used to over the course of her admittedly-short life. Letting out another groan, the blond girl tried to open her eyes. Only to close them a moment later as the sudden light caused an explosion of pain in her head.

A few moments passed, and she heard some approaching footsteps, along with a hushed conversation that she couldn't quite follow but likely was the topic of. Another few seconds went by, and someone drew the curtains. Waiting for a little, Alicia dared to open one of her eyes again. Everything was so blurry, but at least not painfully-bright anymore. Opening the second eye made the image a bit more in-focus, though she was still seeing nothing but swimming color blobs. Yet, even like that, she could tell that there was an adultish woman with gray or silver hair and a much younger blond girl standing next to the bed she was in.

Pushing herself to raise her head off the pillow, Alicia tried to ask for some water. And even though it came out as unintelligible rasps, she was still somehow understood: the silver-haired lady placed a hand behind her head while bringing a glass of water to her lips.

"You should rest some more." The woman said once Alicia was done drinking. Given how her body felt like it was molded out of lead the blonde girl wordlessly agreed. And so, as soon as her head was lowered back onto the pillow, she drifted back into the soft darkness of unconsciousness...

* * *

When Alicia woke up again, she felt much better. No, she was still aching everywhere and moving even a finger was quite a labor, but... Daring to open her eyes, she was pleasantly surprised by the fact that this time around she could actually see things pretty clearly now. And so, pushing herself to sit up a little, she looked around the room she was in.

Wherever she was, it was without any doubts a girl's room. Though, unlike what one might expect, it wasn't painted pink or finished with excessive frills. Truth to be said, the room was actually rather abstinent actually... As she sat up a little bit higher, Alicia's eyes fell on the framed photo depicting a blue-eyed with brown hair made into twin pigtails. However, as it didn't look like this girl was there the previous time she woke up, the blonde assumed that it was a very friend of whoever had taken her in.

Further inspection of the place was put on hold as the silver-haired lady from before opened the door and stepped into the room. And now that she could see her as something more than almost-shapeless blobs of colors, Alicia noted that this woman had red eyes, which was not a very common trait.

"Are you feeling better now?" The silver-haired lady asked while giving her a glass of water. Nodding slowly, Alicia took the glass and took a few sips out of it.

"Yes." The blond girl replied. Her voice was still quite raspy, but at least now it wasn't bad enough to make her words unintelligible. "Thank you." She added then as she handed the still-half-full glass back to the red-eyed woman, who then placed it on the bedside table.

"Good." The lady said then. There was a pause, before she spoke again: "What is the last thing you remember?" Alicia thinned her lips as she concentrated on her recent past. Unfortunately, it looked like her latest memories got damaged to the point where the only things she could recall were various explosions of light or bursts of pain flashing through otherwise-impenetrable haze. And even before that many many things were foggy... Actually, her last clear memory was of her incredibly boring and lonely days at the Mid-Childan hospital following the... uh... reactor explosion.

"I... I remember being put in a hospital... And mom wasn't visiting me often... She was looking for a way to cure me... And..." She trailed off here, before asking a very important to her question: "And... Where is my mom?" The silver-haired lady's face quickly went through a few emotions, before she schooled her features back into a neutral expression.

"I see..." Something was telling Alicia that some important events had taken place between then and now. And whatever those were, they probably weren't of a good kind. Yet, it didn't look like she'll get to know about those events anytime soon... "As for your mother..." The silver-haired lady meanwhile continued: "I'm sorry to say, but she's not with you, she's most likely dead. Officially, she was listed as missing and presumed dead for over thirty months."

Two and a half years? - the blonde girl wondered inwardly. Did really that much time pass since she last remembered herself clearly? No, even with her recent memories being so hazy, Alicia could tell that it wasn't yesterday or even a week ago, but still...

The two of them then fell into an uneasy silence, which lasted for maybe half a minute. Eventually, it was broken by another person entering the room, carrying some sort of soup in a rather simple white dish. This person, apparently, was the other girl that was there when Alicia woke up the last time. And now that she could see her clearly... more clearly, the revived blonde was shocked by how similar this girl looked to her. If not for their ages, the two of could have been twins!

"W-Why there is another one of me?" She asked as soon as her shock wore off a little. The same shock also somehow prevented her from perceiving a small dark whisper at the back of her head that was telling her that she, for whatever reasons, needed to kill this girl...

"You haven't told her yet, Reinforce?" The lookalike asked the silver-haired woman. And Alicia was quick to note that this was not quite a normal name; this lady must be really special somehow... Meanwhile, her not-clone let out a sigh upon hearing the 'Not yet.' response from Reinforce. Placing the bowl she was holding onto the bedside table, the blonde finally introduced herself: "My name is Fate and I'm your... uh..." Fate paused, trying to decide on which word would best describe her complex relation to the girl in front of her. Eventually, she settled on the simplest, though most vague, one: "I'm your sister, Alicia-nee-chan."

"A-Are you really, really my sister?" The older blonde asked a little bit disbelievingly after a few moments of silence. Fate nodded affirmatively, deciding that the discussion of her complicated origins could wait until another time. The younger girl was then greatly startled when her sister suddenly moved in an attempt to reach out towards her: with her enforcer training kicking in, she jumped backwards, ready to fight for her life. Reinforce too shifted into a fighting stance, though she was far more subtle about it.

However, Alicia wasn't attacking anyone. If anything, she was actually hurt a bit by sister's reaction: she just wanted to hug her... A few tense moments passed, and, having relaxed a little, Fate realized that herself. Still ready to fight back, she nevertheless slowly approached the older girl and guardedly allowed her to embrace her.

"I... I've always wanted a sister." Alicia whispered emotionally as she snuggled against her sister's chest. "And now... I have you now, Fate-chan." Here, a dark whisper of the curse tried to tell her that she should be choking the dear life out of the other blonde rather than hugging her, but Alicia was so happy to finally meet her sister that didn't even notice that 'voice'.

"There, there..." The young enforcer-in-training whispered back as she finally returned her sister's embrace properly. The two of them remained like that for a while; then Alicia leaned back a little and raised her head to look at Fate's face.

"I want... I want to know more about you, imouto. Tell me about your life, please!.. " She asked with such a face that it was just impossible to refuse her. Not that her sister was even thinking about that: while it was true that Alicia was the reason for her less than perfect childhood, it was not the girl's fault. No, it was their mother, Precia, who was responsible for that, and even then, Fate had somehow found it in her to (mostly) forgive the woman. Forgive, yes, but never forget...

"Sure." The younger blonde said as she gently lowered her sister back onto the bed. Then she telepathically asked Reinforce to give the two of them some privacy.

"_Are you sure about that?_" The silver-haired avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky asked back as she reminded Fate about the battle that took place yesterday: one on one, she would have lost there.

"_It'll be alright._" The red-eyed enforcer-in-training replied. "_The magic limiters we've placed on her are still on. And if they all fail somehow, you and Hayate-chan and Yuki-chan will be in the room next door, right?_" The Lady of the Blessed Wind let out a sigh, before walking out of the room, giving the two Testarossa girls some time to bond with each other privately.

* * *

Despite being alive for less than a decade, Fate's life had been quite eventful – even if one was to forget about the Jewel Seeds incident and everything preceding it – so she had more than a few stories to tell to her suddenly-revived older sister. And that girl certainly was very eager to learn more about her adventures. Alas, it looked like the world was conspiring against them once again...

It's been roughly an hour and a half since the silver-haired Lady had left the two of them to their own devices when Alicia finally 'heard' the curse's dark whisper. And they scared her a lot. Yet the thought of estranging and losing her sister, even if she had just met her, scared the older blonde even more. Thus, after a few minutes of hesitation, she finally told her about the 'whispers' that kept haunting her.

This 'confession' caught Fate by surprise; nevertheless, as soon as her shock wore off, she abandoned her storytelling in favor of thoroughly inspecting her sister for any signs of the curse or whatever else influencing her. And what she found didn't make her happy: while still thin enough to remain unnoticed if one wasn't looking specifically for them, the lines of corruption were already appearing on Alicia's skin. And that was definitely not a good sign... Deciding that someone more knowledgeable about magic should confirm her findings, the young enforcer-in-training contacted Reinforce telepathically and asked her to take a look at the limiters she and Harry had placed on her sister yesterday in order to seal the curse away.

"I'm afraid, I have only bad news." The avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky said, once she finished her inspection. "Whatever this curse is, it is even more dangerous than we've originally thought. In addition to the effects we've observed yesterday, it also appears to be capable of breaking apart any power blocks placed over it. To make the things even worse, it also has an adaptive ability and no limiter will work against it more than once or twice." Yes, these certainly were bad, awful news, Fate agreed. Her further thoughts were interrupted when Alicia fearfully asked a question:

"W-what had h-happened yesterday?" After a lengthy moment of silence, Reinforce finally delivered the answer, and in a very straightforward manner.

"You've been controlled by the curse and came this close to killing Testa-... I mean, Fate-chan." Alicia certainly looked shocked to her core by this revelation.

"I... I don't want to... to hurt my sister." She said with tears appearing in her eyes. "Please... Please tell me... that there is a way to... to stop this curse! I... Please, do something so that I... so that I don't hurt my sister ever again!" She begged.

"I'm afraid, there isn't much we can do about it at the moment." The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind. "I'm sorry." Indeed, even though she was a living library of magical knowledge, Reinforce couldn't even 'read' the curse, much less find a way to break it at the moment. And with how quickly it was eating though the limiters they tried to contain it with, it looked like they had less than a day before it took over Alicia once again...

"Then kill me!" The girl in question stated in fake confidence as tears kept streaming out of her eyes.

"W-what?.. But... I can't..." The younger blonde replied almost immediately.

"If you don't, then... I'll hurt you again and... It's better if I go than you, Fate-chan." Alicia pressed.

"And still..." Her sister began, only to get interrupted by a telepathic message from Reinforce:

"_Pretend to agree with her._" The silver-haired beauty 'said'. "_We can place her into stasis instead of killing for real. It should give us an extra month or so to look for a way to break the curse... But if we fail, I'm afraid we will have to do just as she asks._" A momentary pause later, she continued, answering Fate-chan's unspoken question: "_Your sister suffers from a severe case of mana poisoning, Testarossa; I'm sure you know what it means. Using magic is slowly killing her, yet the curse pays no heed to that. Instead, it is actually pushing her magic beyond its natural limits. You remember how Alicia-san was yesterday, right? That is the toll she paid for fighting a single battle... I don't think she can survive another one so soon._" Fate furrowed her brows. She really had no reasons to doubt Reinforce's words, but that didn't mean that she was happy to 'hear' them.

"Alright..." She finally said with a deep sigh...

**~/ *** \~**

"Arthra" finally arrived to the non-administered world #97 late in the next afternoon. And as soon as the battleship settled on the planet's geostationary orbit, Lindy Harlaown teleported to the surface in order to make sure that Fate-chan and everyone else were alright after the whatever mess they had found themselves in two days ago... Once she verified that everyone indeed was fine, the teal-haired rear admiral finally decided to find out what exactly why her adopted daughter had so urgently summoned her to this world.

"So, tell me guys, what had happened there?" She asked.

"My sister – Alicia – showed up." Fate-chan replied, actually catching her adoptive mother by surprise with this: it was certainly not what the rear admiral was expecting. And it also something quite important as everyone in the TSAB believed that the girl had perished when she and her mother fell into the Imaginary space surrounding their last know base, the Garden of Time.

"And she was controlled by a curse of Al-Hazardian nature, which forced her into attacking Fate-san with intent to kill." Reinforce added then. "We however were able to temporarily seal it away before there were any casualties. Alicia-san herself appears to have no recollection of that fight and has shown no aggression towards Fate-san herself."

"I see..." Lindy said after a long pause. There was another pause, before she spoke again: "And, can I please have a few words with her?" She asked.

"Unfortunately, that is not really possible." The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind replied. "We've placed Alicia-san under a powerful stasis spell yesterday evening to prevent the curse from taking over her again – that piece of magic is capable of breaking the standard magic limiters and evolving to be immune to their effects in the future."

"That's..." Lindy breathed out, not even capable of finding a word to precisely describe her thoughts about this curse and its powers. Taking a deep breath, the teal-haired rear admiral finally asked: "So, what are you planning to do next?"

"I'm definitely going to save my sister!" The blond enforcer-in-training proclaimed.

"I plan on helping Testarossa, however I don't particularly share her optimism." Reinforce said then. "This curse is an exceptionally masterful piece of nastiness and breaking it might take way more time than we actually have..."

"I want to help Fate-chan too!" Hayate quipped enthusiastically, while Yuki-chan who was sitting on her shoulder nodded eagerly. "But I have no idea what I can help her with..." The brunette added then in a much more downbeat voice.

"Well... I'm not sure what I can do, but I'll do everything in my powers to help you." Lindy said. There was a short pause, before Harry, who had been quiet up until now, finally decided to take the word.

"I've been thinking about for the last two days." The green-eyed teen said. "And I believe that the people capable of breaking the curse might actually exist back on my home world. The likelihood of that is pretty faint, however, and even if they really do exist... Paying for their services with actual money might be beyond our capabilities. Alternative methods of working it off will most likely require us to take up arms and assist the lawful side of the civil war." And providing military assistance of any sort to the governments of non-administered worlds without an explicit order from the TSAB commanders was, well, a big no-no.

"There are mages living on the non-administered world #138?" Lindy asked. Up until now she, just like everyone else in the Bureau, believed Harry to be a one-off son of that, otherwise completely devoid of magic, world.

"There are hidden magical communities there." The young Potter admitted reluctantly. "But I'm asking you all to keep this a secret. While I can't really speak for all of them, the one existing in my home country is, well... Conservative and Xenophobic, sometimes to a rather ridiculous degree. Because of that, any open first contact will likely end in a disaster."

"I see..." The teal-haired woman said with a sigh. "If it is indeed so, than you are probably right and that magical community should remain a secret from the Bureau until their ways have changed." A small pause later, she continued: "But are you really sure that it might be possible to find someone capable of breaking Alicia's curse there – you make it sound like the mages of your home world are stuck in the dark ages or something like that."

"Well, I'd put them a little bit closer to 'present', but otherwise you got it quite right, Lindy-san." Harry replied. "That said, the magic they wield is probably closer to occult and 'wishcraft' than to the formal spell systems you are familiar with. Thus, I think that it is possible that someone there might be capable of breaking the curse." And after a few moments of silence, the green-eyed teen added added another argument to why it would be beneficial to sneak onto his home world. "And even if we can't find anyone that can help Alicia-san there, we should still be able to acquire some medicines to significantly speed up Nanoha-chan's and Megane-sensei's recovery."

"Hmm..." Lindy hummed. It was quite a dilemma she was facing here. On one hand, as a high-ranked Bureau officer it was her duty to dissuade them from taking an absence without leave to fight in a war the TSAB had no business in; on the other hand, though, she really wanted to help Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan,.. In the end, her human side won. "Very well." She said. "Maybe you really should go there. However, please make sure you don't attract the unnecessary attention. I might be a low-tier admiral, and I'm willing to offer you some political protection, but there isn't much I can actually do in case the commanders learn about your adventures."

"Thank you, mom." Fate-chan replied. Then she turned her attention to her companions: "Shall we start packing?" She asked.

"Maybe." Harry responded. "Though, I say, we should rest tonight and head out tomorrow morning. God knows, we won't get a chance to relax properly for quite a while once we do the dimension hopping." After a small pause, he continued: "And speaking of the necessary preparations... Someone will have to watch over Lu-chan until we're back; taking her with us is just too dangerous."

"I can do that." Lindy volunteered.

"Thank you, ma'am." The young Potter replied. "It'd probably be much better if someone Lu-chan is familiar with would stay behind and help you, though." And since he was the only person here who knew where to look for the magical communities on the non-administered world #138, the choice here was essentially between just Reinforce and Hayate-chan... There was a long moment of silence, which was eventually broken by the little Queen of the Night Sky:

"Fine, I'll do this. But you really owe me for this one, _Harry-kun_." She said, stressing his name in a way that made him at least a little uncomfortable.

"Of course." The green-eyed teen replied. "And thank you, Hayate-chan." No, he really didn't like the glint in the brunette's eyes: she definitely had some plans for cashing the favors he owed her in... There was a pause, before he continued, now addressing to everyone: "Anything else important that we must discuss right now?" As it turned out, there was a lot...

**~/ *** \~**

Harry sighed as he leaned back against the edge of the bath. The last couple of days had been quite hectic, and, like he had said to his companions earlier, they might not be able to get a chance to rest properly while seeking the way break Alicia's curse on his home home world. And there were absolutely no guarantees that a curse-breaker good enough actually existed... At least this 'expedition' wouldn't be a total waste of time even if they failed to break the curse: they still would be able to procure some phoenix tears to heal both Nanoha-chan and Megane-sensei.

That said, there still were many many things to worry about: the Dark Lord and his minions; the corrupt politicians that were technically on the side of Light; keeping their activity a secret from the Bureau... Hell, if the situation in the Magical Britain had significantly changed since his last contact with them seven months ago, this whole plan for saving Alicia might fall apart!

His further thoughts on the subject were interrupted when Reinforce walked into the bathroom, clad in nothing but a towel. Which was soon discarded as the silver-haired stepped under the shower. For awhile neither of them said a word; then the Lady of the Blessed Wind finally broke the silence:

"Harry-kun." She said softly. Upon his murmur of acknowledgment, she continued: "The past few days have been rather crazy, so I couldn't just find a good time to talk to you about it, but..."

"Something happened?" The green-eyed teen asked then.

"Well, no, not really..." Reinforce replied as she turned the shower off and joined him in the bath. "It's just,.. Well,.. My master is getting more and more curious about us, or, rather, about the sensual side of our relationship." Harry wasn't even sure how he should respond to this. His red-eyed lover, who was now resting against his chest, meanwhile, continued: "She... Well, my master seems to want to know more about how different lovemaking between a man and a woman and between two women is. And she might have even hinted that she wouldn't mind getting some personal experience."

"Isn't Hayate-chan a bit too young for that?" The young Potter asked, referring to the fact that the brunette in question wasn't even thirteen yet.

"Probably." The silver-haired avatar of the Tome replied. Indeed different societies had different norms. And by the standards of Early Belkan kingdoms, her master would have been considered a full-fledged adult already... But they weren't living in those times; on the administered worlds or here, on Earth, Hayate-chan was still but a child in the eyes of law. "But you know my master – she can be quite persistent and stubborn about something that has caught her attention."

"Yeah." The green-eyed teen agreed agreed: there was no denying that Hayate-chan could indeed be very willful when she wanted to. "Still." He continued. "What shall we do about this?" Reinforce was silent for a few moments, before finally shrugging.

"I don't know." She said. Truth to be said, Harry himself couldn't think up any good way to deal with this problem right now either. On the second thought, there were no indications that the brunette in question would actually go ahead with that idea of hers in the near future, so...

"Maybe we shouldn't worry much about that right now?" The young Potter suggested. "If it indeed comes to that, I'm sure we will be able to think something up." Reinforce hummed quietly under her breath as she thought about it.

"Maybe." She agreed finally. This was followed by another few moments of silence, which were eventually broken by Harry:

"We should get some rest now." He said, wrapping his hands around his silver-haired lover. "Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day..." Reinforce nodded, snuggling closer to him, as the two of them drifted into relaxing silence.

**~/ *** \~**

Around nine in the next morning, everyone gathered in the Yagami residence's backyard as the expeditionary group was going through the final preparations before they would depart towards the non-administered world #138 on their quest to find a way to break the terrible curse Alicia had been placed under as well as to get the cures for Nanoha-chan and Megane Alpine.

The said group included consisted of Harry himself, Hedwig, Reinforce, Fate-chan and Arf – the orange-haired wolf-girl, as it turned out, arrived here with everyone else, but Lindy-san, fearing that she might act rashly and screw something up, had her staying aboard of "Arthra" yesterday. Judging by the way she clinging to her mistress, those fears might not have been entirely baseless... Alicia, who had been moved into a recovery pod taken from the battleship's medical bay, was there as well.

"How's it going? Are you ready, guys?" Lindy asked as she observed Reinforce prepare the specialized version of the **Dimensional Transfer** spell that would let her transport the entire group and their, however small, luggage in one go.

"Will be in a few moments." The silver-haired beauty replied, still contacting on her spell. The rest of the group, meanwhile, nodded, signifying that they were as ready to embark the journey into the unknown as they could be. "All ready." The avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky said a couple of seconds later as she finished setting the spell up.

"Alright then, have a successful trip! Remember to stay under the radar and good luck!" The teal-haired lady said. "Hope to see you all soon!"

"Thank you, Lindy-san, and we will!" Reinforce replied, before turning her attention to her companions. "Let's get going then?" She asked then. Once the others confirmed that they were ready to depart, she activated the spell: "**Dimensional Transfer!**" And so they disappeared from the non-administered world #97 in a flash of light.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	30. Joining the war

The thirtieth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**Jose19**, Harry and Reinforce will still be at it, even if Rein will drift more towards her mistress, who enters her teen years soon. And Hayate herself is expressing some interest in him - if only out of curiosity about what he can offer to Reinforce that she can't. Who knows, it might eventually go beyond just that and some deeper feelings might blossom between the two of them. As for other potential candidate for Harry's future wife, well... She is kinda in the story already. ;)  
**frankieu**, **puma1sunfire**, **roughstar333**, **FateBurn**, **ultima-owner**, **davycrockett100**, **vampireharry the 2**, **Innortal**, **Guest**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Ranmaleopard**, **A Brilliant Loser**, **Impstar**, I still have no real idea on how to weave Hermione into the plot at the moment. On the other hand, the arc has just started, and I still have a chance come up with something that doesn't look like an asspull yet.  
**riseblader14**, thank you for spotting the mistake. Corrected.

*** AN**: Sorry for the long time it took me to update the story, but hey, this chapter is also noticeably longer than the usual one... ;)

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XXX: Joining the war**

Finding a good base of operations turned out to be a little more difficult that Harry had initially anticipated. Sure, some abandoned warehouse or shack no one cares about would have worked as well, but he and the girls would rather settle somewhere more comfy.

Unfortunately, various hotels and inns were out as none of them had the legit identification documents to check in: their TSAB IDs despite looking credible enough at the first glance, would not stand up to any scrutiny. And then there was Alicia... Thanks to the stasis spell she had been placed under, she'd appear quite dead to someone without magic; the fact that the recovery pod she was in looked a bit like a very high-tech coffin wasn't helping either. A hotel's chambermaid finding her would definitely call the police and that was something Harry and the others would rather do without.

But the hotels weren't their only option for a comfy stay on this world; they could also try renting an apartment... And Lady Luck chose to smile upon them here: after just a couple of hours of searches the young Potter managed to find a decent yet not mindbogglingly-expensive apartment in a not at all bad London neighborhood. What's more, the owner of the said apartment seemed to only care about the money he'd get out of this deal and hadn't bothered with looking through the dark-haired teen's documents thoroughly.

Now that they've gotten their base of operations and laid some temporarily but powerful protective barriers around it, the Bureau mages were ready to begin their secret mission. But first things first, they contacted Lindy-san to tell her that they were alright and even managed to find a place to move into already. Harry also used this opportunity to chat with both Lutecia-chan and Hayate-chan for a bit...

Once the receivers were hung up, the young Potter finally headed out for some information gathering. Stepping out of the apartment and making sure that he won't accidentally break the 'masquerade', he used **Dimensional Transfer** to teleport himself to a small, dark and unused blind alley adjoined to the Diagon Alley that he had accidentally found when he visited the place the previous time.

Sticking to the shadows to remain unnoticed, Harry peeped out into the Magical Britain's main street. There less civilians there than he thought there would be and quite a few of them looked a bit jumpy, as if expecting something bad to happen at any time, but to the green-eyed teen it didn't look like he'd be in immediate danger as soon as he revealed himself. Thus, stealthily slipping into the shopping crowds, he began walking down the alley towards the Gringotts bank: having some local money would make his information gathering much quicker and easier.

Some forty five minutes later he walked out of the goblin-managed bank, now a few hundreds galleons richer, and headed straight to the nearest newsstand in order to buy himself some newspapers... The amount of available press had surprised him a little – during his two years as a Hogwarts student, Harry had believed that only half-a-dozen of newspapers and periodicals were published in the wizarding world – but he still bought every single issue that he thought might contain any useful information.

Having bought all the press he needed, the young Potter retired to a small but clean bar at the far end of the Diagon Alley to skim through it in peace and with a cup of hot tea to keep him warm on this cold January day. And after just first three newspapers, he already had a pretty good idea of what was going on in the magical Britain: the Light side, represented by the Ministry for Magic and Dumbledore with his followers, despite their best efforts, was slowly losing against more proactive, devious and cruel Death Eaters commanded by lord Voldemort.

While this situation definitely wasn't great for an average wizard or witch out there, it suited Harry and his companions perfectly: with the Light side of the conflict still standing, yet not having enough power under its command to turn the tide and crush the terrorists, their offer of assistance would most likely be accepted. And the price – breaking Alicia's curse, if that was at all possible – wasn't too steep of a price for the services he and his friends would provide...

Having thought about it a little bit more, the green-eyed Potter decided that the first phase of 'the plan' was complete and he could move onto the next one: contacting Albus Dumbledore and telling him that he and his friends were ready to offer the Light side a helping hand in dealing with the Voldemort problem. But before that...

Peeping out of his private booth to make sure that it really was private, Harry summoned a holographic display and rang Reinforce up. His call was answered a few moments later, and aside from the Lady of the Blessed Wind herself, he could also see his lovely Hedwig hovering there around her 'mother', as well as Fate-chan performing some sort of maintainance on her device in the next room. Arf was nowhere to be seen, though.

"What's up, Harry? How's your information gathering going?" Reinforce asked, once they exchanged their greetings.

"It's going fine." The green-eyed Potter replied. "I believe, I already know what the situation is here." As his silver-haired lover let out an 'oh', he elaborated: "While the balance of powers has changed a bit in favor of the more radical and terrorist faction since my last visit to this world last summer, the civil war I've told you about is still ongoing."

"And you're going to offer our services to the local government?" The avatar of the Tome asked next.

"Yeah." Harry said in response. "While there aren't many good things I can say about them in general, the other side is much worse: they often kill people without magic for fun, for God's sake!" While some of the rulers of ancient Belkan kingdoms had been oppressive tyrants, none of them ever went as far as this, so Reinforce could agree that Nazi like that should never be allowed to take over.

"So... Are you going to write a missive to Dumbledore?" Hedwig asked a moment later. Then, as she caught a curious look her 'mother' gave her, she huffed: "I was with Harry ever since he learned about the existence of magic. And just because I used to be his owl, it doesn't mean that I was just some dumb bird!" The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind responded by cradling her 'daughter' to her chest while speaking soothingly:

"Shh... Everything's alright, I'm just being curious."

"My thoughts on how cute you two look at the moment aside,.." Harry intruded. "But, yes, I indeed am going to contact Dumbledore and offer him our deal. Shall I send him the letter right now?" He asked.

"Well, the sooner we get this 'job' done, the better." Reinforce reasoned. "I say, you should do it now." Then she called Fate-chan across the apartment: "And what do you think about it, Testarossa?" After all, even if she hadn't participated in the conversation until now, she still heard their entire discussion.

"I agree. We have a limited window of opportunity to fight at our full power before the observation vessel returns and we have to tone it all done to remain undetected. We shouldn't waste any time." The blond beauty replied.

"Okay then." Harry said. "I'll send the letter now; we should know if the government is willing to negotiate with us by tomorrow morning." Seeing Reinforce and Hedwig nod, he bid them farewell and closed the communication window. Letting out a sigh, the young Potter produced a sheet of paper and a pen from his bag and went to work on the letter...

* * *

Composing the said letter – in a very formal style that was expected from it – turned out to be a much harder task than the green-eyed teen originally thought it would be. But, in the end, an hour of work and several drafts later, he managed to produce something that he was mostly satisfied with.

Putting the finished copy aside, Harry then destroyed the drafts with a lighter he actually carried around with him just for such a reason. That done, he collected his things and, paying the bill, left the bar; his next stop being the Diagon Alley's owl-post office.

Upon his arrival there, the young Potter saw that now there was a pair of auror stationed within the office. And in addition to protecting the establishment from direct attacks by the Death Eaters or some other Dark Lord sympathizers, they were also making sure that no letter sent carried any curses. Too bad, the steep increase of the prices suggested that it wasn't the Ministry of Magic that paid for these additional safety measures, but the plain folk... And while this wasn't a big problem for Harry, the teen was still not very happy about having to overpay the letter delivery.

These aurors took their sweet time to verify that the letter the young Potter was sending would not hurt its recipient, intended or otherwise, in any way. And while they were professional enough not to read the missive, at least one of them showed visible disdain towards the dark-haired teen for writing his letter on muggle paper instead of magical parchment...

But whatever, once it became clear that his letter was just that, a letter, Harry was finally allowed to proceed to the counter and pick an owl that would make the delivery. And since there was no time to waste, the TSAB investigator picked the fastest one – hopefully, this way it would reach Dumbledore before the man retires for the night.

With his missive now on its way, the young Potter's mission in the Diagon Alley was completed. It was the time for him to return 'home' now. And so, after making his way to the same blind alley he had used to teleport in there, he used the **Dimensional Transfer** spell to disappear towards the apartment he and the girls were currently stay at...

**~/ *** \~**

It was almost midnight when Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was finally done with the things that required his immediate attention. And even though there still were a lot reports and other paperwork for him to deal with, those could wait for a bit: working throughout the entire night was not healthy for someone of his advanced age. Not to mention that needed to up early in the next morning, since it was his duty as a Hogwarts headmaster to inspire all these young minds under his care to be diligent students. And to do that, he had to appear in the Great hall every morning, looking fresh and ready for a day of great performance.

However just as he rose from him armchair, an owl carrying a letter flew into his office. And since unless it was a special delivery, the owls waited till morning, this letter had to be something important, even if it looked just like a folded sheet of ordinary muggle paper.

Letting out a deep sigh, the aged warlock collapsed back into his armchair and took the missive from the owl. Opening simple mundane seal that kept the paper folded, Dumbledore read the letter. Then he read it again, just to make sure that his tired mind wasn't playing a game with him... But the fact remained, the message he had just received was quite real and – if he read it right – it was the chance to finally turn the tide of the Second Blood War and push Voldemort and his Death Eaters back!

Getting out of his armchair, the Hogwarts headmaster walked up to the fireplace that was there in the corner of his office. Then he took a pinch of floo powder from an ornate basin and threw it into the fire, making it turn emerald-green.

"Ministry for Magic, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement head office." He called, before sticking his head into the magical flames. It took the network a few moments to connect him to the floo terminal he requested, but when it did, the aged warlock saw that his guess was right and Amelia Bones, the current director of the DMLE was still in her office. Truth to be said, with just how much work the monocle-wearing witch had to do, it was a surprise that she appeared at home at all. Yet, despite all the work she had to deal with, Amelia still managed to be there for her niece, Susan.

"Oh!" The witch exclaimed, apparently startled by the sudden appearance of Albus's head in her fireplace. "Good evening, professor. Is there something I can do for you tonight?" The Bones matriarch asked next. Then, allowing herself to let out a yawn, she added: "Also, if it isn't some sort of an emergency, I'd rather it waits till tomorrow morning."

"I'm pretty sure, this is important enough to be dealt with now, Amelia." Dumbledore replied, causing the director of the DMLE to let out a sigh.

"Alright, professor." She said. "Let me hear what you have for me." There was a small pause, during which she tweaked the wards on her fireplace to allow a visitor in. "Step through. I don't think that this is something we should discuss over the floo." Nodding, Albus allowed the magic to carry him whole to the DMLE head office.

**~/ *** \~**

Voldemort was annoyed at the moment. Very very annoyed. This evening, his scrying ritual revealed it to him that the Potter brat decided to resurface once again. Yet, beyond this, the ritual gave him no useful information: whatever wards the boy was hiding behind, were good enough to confuse even his most powerful tracking magics. The most precise result he was able to obtain was simply 'London', the others were even more worthless.

Now, despite the existence of the prophecy and the two times he had to flee from the Potter spawn, Voldemort didn't believe the boy to be capable of defeating him. No, those mysterious powers the brat had were definitely quite dangerous, but... What a single bastard like him could do against the greatest Dark Lord in all times?

Nevertheless, that muggle-spawn needed to be dealt with. Just in case. Unfortunately, without knowing where he was hiding, there was little that could be done about him. But the Potter brat wouldn't be able to hide behind those wards of his forever: Voldemort had no doubts that Dumbledore was aware of the boy's reappearance as well. There was no way the Hogwarts headmaster won't try recruiting him to his cause. The old fool, after all, believed the Potter brat to be chosen one or some other shit like that.

And whether the boy was going to accept the old fool's offer this time around or not, he'd have to reveal himself in order to deliver his answer. That was when Voldemort planned to strike him – and, hopefully Dumbledore as well, down. Yes, that was the best course of action... The Great Britain's most feared Dark Lord just hoped that he won't be forced to wait for this for too long. Patience, after all, wasn't exactly one of his virtues.

**~/ *** \~**

When Harry woke up early in the next morning, an owl with a note attached to its paw was already waiting for him on a tree just outside of the kitchen's window: the barrier field Reinforce had erected around the apartment was partially phasing it out of this layer of reality and kept the bird from coming any closer to the letter's recipient.

Powering the barrier down a little, the young Potter allowed the owl to finally deliver him the note. Free from its burden, the feathered messenger, despite being a nocturnal burn, refused to rest for even a little bit and immediately flew away, presumably returning to its 'home' at Hogwarts. Shrugging at the owls behavior, the green-eyed investigator turned his attention to the note in his hands.

"Anything interesting in the morning post?" Reinforce asked as she walked into the kitchen, her silver hair still slightly damp after a shower.

"Well,.." Harry began, simultaneously scanning the letter from Dumbledore with his eyes. "Can't say that our offer of assistance was accepted yet, but they are willing to negotiate with us..." He made a small pause here. "Hedwig, why don't you come with me to the negotiations?" He asked then, catching the amber-eyed miniature girl who sleepily – unlike Reinforce and the Wolkenritter she and Yuki-chan needed to rest at least every other day – floated into the kitchen by surprise.

"Uhm... Okay." She replied after a few moments of silence.

"Just remember to stay courteous no matter what, okay?" Harry asked her then. After all, despite being much smaller and technically weaker than him, Hedwig was still quite fiercely protective of her lord.

"Sure." She promised, though the green-eyed teen wasn't really convinced that she'll really do her best to keep her temper in check if they have to deal with some rude or annoying politicians during their negotiations with Dumbledore and the Ministry for Magic representatives.

"And what about Testarossa-chan and myself? Are we coming with you too?" Reinforce asked then.

"Actually." Harry replied. "I think you should remain here. This way, if the agreement to negotiate with us was made with the intention of luring us into a trap, at least you will be able to safely escape this world... I know, this isn't a very like scenario, but we should be ready for anything." He said. "And, don't worry, I'll have you participating in the negotiations via a teleconference."

"I think you are being a bit too paranoid here, Harry-kun." The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind said. There was a small pause, before she continued: "Nevertheless, you are probably right; there is no real need for us all to go there, especially if you're going to set up a teleconference for us." Thanking her with a nod, the young Potter set about making a breakfast for everyone...

**~/ *** \~**

Having changed into their Ground Forces uniforms, Harry and Hedwig – the latter hiding inside the former's bag not to attract muggles' attention to herself – headed out to Hyde Park Corner: Dumbledore was supposed to pick them up for the negotiations from there.

And even though they arrived to the Wellington arch with maybe ten minutes to spare, the old wizard was already there, waiting for them. Thankfully, the man was sane enough not to come wearing one of the many eyesore-bright robes he owned; instead Dumbledore was dressed into a black business suit straight out of the fifties. Not that it really made him stand out in the crowds any less...

"Good morning, professor." The young Potter greeted as he walked up to the aged warlock.

"Good morning to you too, Harry." Dumbledore greeted back, while his sharp-as-ever eyes scanned the black-haired teen in front of him. The shoulder straps on the said teen's uniform certainly didn't go unnoticed by him; and while might not be able to translate them into a military rank, those insignia to him looked like something a junior officer would wear. "Nice to see that you are doing well, my boy." There was a short pause, before the Hogwarts headmaster spoke again: "Also, Harry, I somehow was under the impression that you wasn't the only wizard in your group. Aren't your comrades coming as well?" He asked.

"They don't have to physically be there to contribute to our negotiations." The dark-haired mage replied a bit cryptically.

"How's that possible?" Dumbledore asked. After all, he knew no reasonably-portable magical artifact that could allow a whole group of wizards or witches to converse in real time over considerable distance. And he was sure the young man in front of him was clever enough to understand that there will be no fireplace in the conference hall where the negotiations will take place – and even if there was one, it wouldn't have helped much to achieve this as there could be only a single 'caller'.

Unlike many of his colleagues, though, the aged warlock wasn't blind to the developments in the area of telecommunications that the muggles had made in the recent years. But the Ministry building was such a magical place that nothing running on electricity would ever work there. Surely, young Harry knew that as well, right?

"You'll see." The green-eyed teen replied, apparently not ready to reveal his secrets of trade just yet, before changing the topic: "Shall we get going? The sooner we start..."

"Alright." Dumbledore agreed with a small nod. Then he began walking away towards the nearest public entrance to the Ministry for Magic...

* * *

Maybe fifteen minutes later, they reached a street that contained several rather shabby-looking offices, a pub and an overflowing skip. There also was a pretty old red telephone box, which had a few panes of glass missing. Truth to be said, Harry had expected the Ministry of Magic to have a public entrance in a more impressive location. But, whatever...

Dumbledore led him into the telephone box and, once the young investigator was inside, closed the door behind them. And let it be known that there were no space-expansion charms applied in there, so the fit was quite very tight. Though it looked like the aged warlock wasn't at all concerned about this. Instead, he reached for the received and began dialing up. Six – two – four – four – two.

'_MAGIC._' The green-eyed teen translated in his mind. Indeed, once the Hogwarts headmaster finished dialing, a cool female voice sounded inside the telephone box as loudly and plainly as though this invisible woman was standing right beside them.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business." The voice requested.

"Albus Dumbledore, Chief Warlock of Wizengamot, escorting Mr. Harry Potter for negotiations." Was Dumbledore's immediate response. There was a moment of silence, before the voice responded:

"Thank you" It said. "Visitor, please take the badge and attach it to the front of your robes." There was a click and a rattle as a pair of metallic badges slid out of the metal chute where returned coins usually appeared. Picking his one up, the young mage saw that it read 'Harry Potter, negotiations'... Meanwhile, the voice continued: "Visitors to the Ministry are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium."

"Eh." The green-eyed breathed out as he turned to look at Dumbledore.

"Something's wrong, Harry?" The said man asked, while the phone box began descending under the ground. "It's just a standard procedure, they will let you have your wand back."

"Since I'm not using it to cast magic, I don't normally carry my old wand with me. And since my... our arrival here was an on-spot decision, I had no time to retrieve it from my home." The young Potter explained the situation. "And I'm quite sure the Ministry won't be able to work with the devices."

"Devices?" The Hogwarts headmaster asked back. He could deduce that this was what the magic foci were called in Harry's new homeland, but beyond that... In response to his inquiry, the green-eyed teen pulled the sleeve off his right hand, exposing a bracer made from some silvery metal. On the upper side of this bracer, there also was an aquamarine crystal partially sunken into the metal.

"This is my device. It's a rather complex piece of magical technology, but its basic functions are performing the calculations necessary to construct spell matrices and management of magical energy. Beyond that, it acts as an organizer and a knowledge base. It can also record and transmit audio and video messages – this is how my colleagues will be participating in our negotiations today." Harry explained. A moment later he added: "More advanced devices also carry a limited artificial intelligence and can even walk their users through various training scenarios that exist in their databases."

"That sounds very interesting." Dumbledore said after a short pause. It was rather hard for him to wrap his mind around the idea that something like this could even exist; if all that Harry had said was true, this device was even more advanced – by a few decades if not a full century – than the cutting edge technology used by muggles. "As for your worries, yes, it doesn't look like the magic used to register wands will work on this device of yours. But don't worry, the security will just confirm that you don't have an actual wand on you and then they will let you in. Plus, I'm with you, so if something doesn't go right, I can just have you let in on my authority."

"Thank you, professor." The young Potter replied just as the telephone box turned magical lift finally reached the atrium of the Ministry for Magic. Stepping into the atrium, Harry reached for his bag, unzipping it. "I think it's aright to let you out now." He said. And a moment later Dumbledore saw a miniature girl with silvery hair and amber eyes float out.

"Thanks... A little bit more and I'd have died from boredom in there." This girl said as she perched herself on the teen's shoulder.

"Some more introductions are in order, I guess." The green-eyed mage said, noticing the old warlock's confusion. "This is Hedwig; she is my personal aide and, in a sense, she is also my daughter. She hold the rank of a sergeant under me in the Investigator Department of the Bureau's Ground Forces."

"You named her after your owl?" The Hogwarts headmaster blurted, apparently caught a little by surprise by this introduction.

"Hey!" The owlish girl in question exclaimed. "Even if I'm different now, I'm still _that_ Hedwig!" There was a pause, before she added, in a quieter voice: "Well, mostly..."

"How?" Was the only thing that Dumbledore could ask next.

"That's a long story, and I'd rather we save it for another time, professor." Harry dodged the question. "Suffice to say, Remaking her like this was probably the only way I could have saved her that day. And I think that she actually enjoys this new form of hers."

"Of course, _papa_." Hedwig replied playfully as she leaned to cuddle against his cheek affectionately.

"I see..." The aged warlock replied. "Still, I'd like to hear that story one day." Harry responded with an uncertain shrug; while there weren't any real secrets in Hedwig's rebirth, he still didn't feel like sharing it with anyone that wasn't his family – and among the members of the Yagami-Potter household only little Lutecia didn't know that story yet.

With this conversation finally dying down, the green-eyed teen diverted his full attention to studying the atrium of the Ministry for Magic. It was a very long and splendid hall with a highly polished, dark wood floor. The dark-blue ceiling above it was inlaid with golden symbols that kept moving and changing as if they were a part of some enormous heavenly noticeboard. The walls on each side of the atrium were panelled in shiny dark wood and each had half a dozen gilded fireplaces set into them. Standing next to each of those fireplaces, there were aurors in their customary red robes. Most of those wizards, however, seemed to be bored out of their mind and weren't paying all that much attention to the people using the fireplaces.

Halfway down the hall there was a fountain with a group of golden statues standing in the middle of a circular pool. Glittering jets of water were flying everywhere, adding that the tinkling hiss of falling water to the pops and cracks of the apparations and the clatter of footsteps as hundreds of witches and wizards, most of whom were wearing glum early-morning looks, strode towards a set of golden gates at the far end of the hall. Those golden gates soon were revealed to actually be doors of giant lifts, carrying wizards and witches to other floors of the ministry building by the dozens.

And since there appeared to be no other way to reach the inner parts of the ministry – it was a very bad design, Harry thought. What if something went wrong and all of the lifts broke? The people inside would be trapped! – they would be taking a ride on one of those as well. But before that, they needed to make a stop at the security desk.

"Good morning, professor." The officer behind the desk greeted. The pair of aurors that were standing behind him nodded the Hogwarts headmaster a greeting as well, before going back to observing the crowds with a bored eye. Turning his attention to the green-eyed teen, the security officer then grunted: "Present your wand, young man."

"I'm not sure it is possible, Jake." Dumbledore replied in Harry's place. "You see, Mr. Potter isn't carrying his wand with him." The man, apparently named Jake, made a curious face, almost as if asking what kind of an insane idiot one had to be to not carry his wand with him anywhere outside of the safety of his house. Then, after a few seconds, he finally responded: "No offense, Chief Warlock, but let me make sure you're telling the truth." Drawing his wand from a holster on his right wrist, the security officer waved it around Harry in a rather complicated pattern. And, apparently, the results he got had surprised him. He then cast another couple of spells, before finally concluding that the young man in front of him indeed didn't have a wand on his person. "Very well, you can go." The wizard said, while quickly writing something on a slip of a parchment, before impaling it onto a small brass spike.

Leaving the security checkpoint behind, Dumbledore led Harry towards the lifts. Alas, the crowds of ministry workers wishing to finally get to their workstations was still there and the two of them – plus Hedwig riding on her lord's shoulder – had to endure being jammed into the lift's corner by the crowd. Thankfully, most of those wizards and witches soon got out on the lower levels, and for the final few levels it was just them in the cabin.

"The security here doesn't look all that impressive, especially when you take the fact that the Magical Britain is in the state of civil war into the consideration." Harry finally commented as the lift was approaching the top level of the ministry. Indeed, while there were fifteen aurors stationed in the atrium, none of them appeared to be truly vigilant or battle-ready.

"You have to understand that we can't have the entire auror force guarding the Ministry, Harry; someone has to patrol the streets and apprehend the criminals." Dumbledore replied.

"True, but still, having your entire government guarded by less than a company of soldiers during the wartime is quite stupid." There a small pause, before the young Potter continued: "And, please, don't tell me that nothing at all was done to boost your military's strength when the damn war began." Unfortunately for him, the Chief Warlock of Wizengamot didn't have any good response to this... "Ah well, whatever. The problems of your military doctrine is not what I'm here to discuss." Harry said with an exasperated sigh. The rest of the lift ride was spent in silence...

Half a minute later, they finally reached the Level One of the ministry; the offices of the Minister for Magic and his support staff, as well as the conference rooms, were located on this level. And one of those conference rooms was where the negotiations will be taking place at.

* * *

Granted they've arrived a little bit before the agreed upon time, the green-eyed Potter was still surprised that no one else was there yet. Then again, this allowed him to make the necessary preparations for the teleconference – namely, finding a good spot for an observation sphere – in peace.

Once the was setup, Harry finally made the call, which was answered a mere second later by a very pretty silver-haired young woman with red eyes, who was wearing the same brown uniform as Harry and Hedwig. Sitting on the sofa next to her, there was a blond girl of about twelve, who, despite her youth, also wore a 'military' uniform, though hers was black. Finally, lying at the girls feet, there was a positively huge canine with orange fur.

"So, is it starting?" The silver-haired woman asked Harry, while Dumbledore was still marveling this way of communication: there was no burning fire to muck the image or the sound up; it could be used by the groups of people on the both sides; and – most important, at least for him – one needn't to stand on his knees before the fireplace to use it.

"It will in a few moments." The young Potter replied. Then he turned his attention to the Hogwarts headmaster: "Would you terribly mind it if we do the introduction after everyone is here, professor?" He asked. Dumbledore shook his head; he could wait for a couple of minutes, even if he was rather curious about the people Harry had spent the past few years with.

The next few minutes were spent in a patient silence as everyone awaited the other group of the Ministry negotiators to finally arrive. The said group turned out to be a serious-looking middle-aged witch with a square jaw, close-cropped grey hair and a monocle in her eye, accompanied by a tall man with a certain rangy loping grace of an elderly lion as well as a pair of nondescript aurors, who remained standing by the doors. And as she approached the table at the center of the conference hall, the monocle-wearing witch gave the young Potter a subtle approving look when her eyes fell onto the shoulder straps of his uniform.

"Alright. Everyone's here now." Dumbledore said. "Let us begin. I believe, the introductions are in order." Pausing for a moment, the old warlock continued: "This is the director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, madam Amelia Susan Bones." He said while nodding towards the said witch. Then he introduced the lion-like man that came with her: "And this is the head of the Auror Offices, Rufus Scrimgeour." Then, gesturing towards himself, he added: "And I'm Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the Chief Warlock of Wizengamot and the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"In other words, he is the speaker of the local magical parliament." Harry translated for Fate-chan and Reinforce. He was then about to introduce himself and his companions, but was interrupted when a new party dropped by the conference hall.

"Hem, hem." A toad-like woman that apparently was too fond of annoying pinks 'coughed' as she stepped into the room. Following her, there was a man, whom Harry recognized as the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, and his pair of auror guards. "What's going on here? And why wasn't Minister invited?" The pink-wearing witch asked next. Then she shifted her attention towards the floating, holographic display that showed the a pair of red-eyed girls and an orange wolf-like beast in what looked like a nondescript muggle living room. "And what is that?" She asked, rudely pointing at the display with her finger.

"We're here to discuss the possibility of a, shall we say, foreign mercenary group aiding our auror forces to bring the Dark Lord down." Dumbledore replied. "Seeing as this group is quite small, director Bones and I didn't believe that these negotiations are worth the Minister's attention." The pink-wearing woman didn't appear to be completely satisfied with this answer, but nonetheless let it slide. "As for this." The Hogwarts headmaster continued, while nodding towards Harry's holographic display. "These are the means of ranged communication used by the mercenary group. I'm afraid, I'm not familiar with the spells used to make it work, though."

"So, that's it?" The annoying witch in pink exploded after a moment of silence. "How dare you do something without informing the Minister?! This is treason! I'll see you all..." However, before she could continue her tirade, the Minister shut her up with a stinging hex to her back.

"Be silent, Dolores!" Fudge barked, for a moment becoming into a fearsome visage of fury. "Your invectives are not welcomed here! Behave, or I will be forced to dismiss you. Permanently."

"Y-You can't do t-that, Minister!" Dolores pleaded. "W-What will you d-do without me?"

"Good undersecretaries aren't easy to find, but I'm sure I'll manage without you, Dolores." Fudge continued. After a short pause, he added: "Hm... I'm sure that Weasley boy, Percy, would be more than happy to take your position." That seemed to make the toad-like woman realize that she really should keep her opinions to herself here.

"I-I'll do as you say, Minister." She said finally.

"Good." Cornelius replied with a nod. Done with his subordinate, he addressed the other people in the room: "Please forgive Dolores for her outburst." He asked. Once the aged warlock nodded, telling him that it was alright, he continued: "Nevertheless, she has a point, professor, madam Bones. You should have informed me about these negotiations beforehand."

"Of course, Minister." Dumbledore 'caved in'. A moment later he continued as if the events of the past minute hadn't happened at all: "Let's get back on track; this is Cornelius Fudge, the current Minister for Magic." He introduced the wizard, before moving onto the toad-like witch that came along with him: "And this is his senior undersecretary Dolores Umbridge."

"We're honored." Harry replied for himself and his companions, even if that wasn't exactly the case with some of the Ministry people in the room. "I'm Harry Potter, a warrant officer for the Investigator Department of the TSAB armed forces." He introduced himself then. Next, he introduced the miniature amber-eyed girl perched on his shoulder: "And this is my Hedwig, my personal aide. Her military rank is that of a sergeant." ...The green-eyed teen surely didn't like the look that Umbridge witch was giving his petite friend... Apparently, that woman had something against what she perceived as 'inhuman'.

"I'm Fate Testarossa-Harlaown." The blond enforcer-in-training introduced herself next, surprising all wizards and witches back at the conference hall with how well the Mid-Childan magitek transferred sounds and images. "I'm also hold the rank of a warrant officer in the TSAB armed forces, however, I'm a part of the Enforcer Department at the moment."

"Harry, my boy, are you sure that a... young lady like her really should participate in a war?" Dumbledore asked then.

"Fate-san is both more powerful and more experienced than I am." The young Investigator countered.

"The Bureau is meritocratic and believes that age doesn't matter as long as the individual in question meets the requirements for the job." The blonde defended herself. "I've proven myself to be capable enough to climb all the way up into the special forces."

"I see..." The aged warlock replied. "Forgive me then." While he still had problems with someone so young being a warrior, he knew better than to force his world views onto the people from other cultures. That, and if Ms. Harlaown indeed was from the special forces – and her uniform being different from everyone else's suggested that it might indeed be so – she ought to be good.

"I'm still not convinced. She's just a little girl." Dolores interjected.

"You want a proof of my power?" Fate asked. "Very well." Picking up a yellow triangular gem from the coffee table, she addressed it: "Bardiche, upload the recordings of my and Nanoha-chan's latest match against Signum and Vita."

「Yes, sir!」 The 'gem' replied as it flashed with internal light. A moment later, a second holographic display popped into the existence. For a few moments all it showed was the file transfer progress. Then the images appeared. These images showed Ms. Harlaown – now wearing a set of rather... controversial clothes – and a brown-haired oriental girl of about her age in white-and-blue dress facing an adult-ish female knight with long pink hair and a petite red-haired girl who looked no older than eight, yet was wielding a large warhammer with the skill that required decades of practice. And both sides of this mock battle were tearing the arena up with fearsome proficiency.

And while none of those four were using wands or any spells known throughout the wizarding world, there was no denying that what they did was magic. Even a hardcore pure-blood and traditionalist like Dolores Umbridge was convinced Ms. Harlaown was quite a powerful magic user...

After letting the video play for about a minute, Harry paused it and minimized that holographic display. There was no need to keep it going as everyone, even Fudge's pink undersecretary, was sufficiently impressed – or scared – by what they had been shown.

"Ahem." The young Potter coughed into his fist to draw everyone's attention. "Let us continue with the introductions." Fate nodded.

"And this is my familiar, Arf." She then introduced the orange 'wolf' lying on the floor in front of her.

"Belittling my master is not the way to get on my good side." Arf warned, visibly shocking some of the wand-wielders. Apparently, the wizarding world's familiars couldn't talk – normally.

"Moving on." Harry inserted before the conversation could deviate away from the order of the day.

"I'm Reinforce." The silver-haired avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky spoke then. "I hold the rank of a sergeant major in the TSAB Ground Forces." She was about to say something else, but was interrupted by Umbridge:

"No last name?" The toad-like witch asked, while ignoring the combined glared of other Ministry officials as well as those of Harry and Hedwig.

"Yagami, I belong to the Yagami family." The Lady of the Blessed Wind replied, even if she could have ignored that question.

"Now then." Harry took up the word again. "Let's discuss our deal: we offer you our services in dealing with the dark lord Voldemort and his followers, known as the Death Eaters. In return, we want two things: first, we require an assistance from a professional curse-breaker team to deal with a very powerful and dangerous curse, one of our own had been subjected to. We, of course, will assist this curse-breaker to the best of our abilities." Pausing for a moment, he then continued: "The other thing we want is three full doses of phoenix tears, bottled to be used at our own discretion."

"That's!.." Umbridge began.

"...Sounds like a good deal." Madam Bones interjected, while glaring at the undersecretary, as if daring her to continue what she had been trying to say. The said toad-like woman that turned to look at the Minister, seeking support from him. Alas, it looked like Fudge was agreeing with the director of the DMLE instead:

"Yes, that d-does sound like a good deal." He said. "If you all are as ...capable as Ms. Harlaown, then, I'm sure, you will be a great help to us in the war against You-Know-Who."

"Thank you for your trust, Minister." Harry spoke. "And while we all have different specializations, I assure you that all five of us are capable mages and fighters."

"I also agree that this is a good deal." Dumbledore voiced his opinion. "We need all the help we can get to end the threat of the dark lord Voldemort, and the price for the services of Mr. Potter and his colleagues is rather inexpensive, considering the power they – apparently – wield. But before we strike the deal, I'd like to know more about the curse you need our help to break."

"I've expected a question along these lines, so I went ahead and prepared these." The green-eyed mage said, while producing a small stack of printouts from his bag and passing them over to the Hogwarts headmaster. "These are the elements of the curse's spell matrix, as far as our ability to decipher them goes." He commented as the aged warlock read the papers diagonally. "As for what the curse itself does..." Harry continued then. "It takes over the victim's mind and gears them towards accomplishing some goal. And it will keep pushing the victim forward no matter the cost."

"No matter the cost, you say?" Madam Bones asked.

"If we hadn't put the temporarily seals to restrain this curse when we did, the sheer stress it was putting on our ...friend's body would have killed her. Granted, she does have a medical condition that makes her suffer from using her magic too much, but you get the point: this curse cares only about making its victims accomplish the task set before them, nothing else." The young Potter explained.

"That's awful." The Director of the DMLE remarked.

"And since you are requesting the help of curse-breakers, I take it that those seals of yours aren't the solution to this problem." Dumbledore noted.

"Indeed." Reinforce spoke up. "In addition to the overwriting the victim's mind and taking full control over their magic, this curse is also incredibly resistant to sealing techniques we normally use. It can break down the limiter seals placed on it in mere days if not hours, while also gaining resistance to any repeated applications of those same limiters." The silver-haired beauty explained.

"I've never heard about any curse that could do anything like this before. This is truly a remarkable piece of magic." The aged warlock said. He then immediately added: "From a purely academic point of view, of course. What it does is, most certainly, really terrible."

"So, do we have a deal, professor?" Harry asked.

"Yes, while this is certain that breaking the curse placed on your friend will require someone with a great deal of knowledge and power.. But, I'm sure, that having you on our side in this war will be worth more than this meager service we are going to provide you with." The Chief Warlock of Wizengamot replied.

"Shall we sign the contract then?" Madam Bones said next, while waving her wand to create a three identical parchments bearing the text of the pact between Mr. Potter and his colleagues on one side and the Ministry on the other side. The young mage nodded, but before even touching the quill, he made sure that there were no 'surprises' hidden in the contact he was about to sign: magic, after all, would have him follow it, or there would be repercussions... Thankfully, the director of the DMLE once again proved herself to be a woman one can trust and the contract was clean of any nasty surprises.

Once Harry, Dumbledore and madam Bones herself had put their signatures on all three copies of the contract – one for each of them – the Minister for Magic was asked to put his seal to make this contract official. At least in the Wizarding Britain; the Bureau would certainly not be very approving of it...

And with that the negotiations were over.

**~/ *** \~**

"So, Potter came back and now allies himself with Bones and Dumbledore in a fight against me?" Voldemort asked as his informant within the Ministry finished reporting. This certainly was rather ...troublesome; he had clashed with the brat several times already, and each time his plans of putting the boy down were foiled either by some strange magic or by Potter's dumb luck. And there were no guarantees that nothing will try to stop him, the great and powerful lord Voldemort, rightful heir to the greatest of Hogwarts founders, Salazar Slytherin, from offing this annoying blood-traitor spawn this time around as well.

"Y-Yes, my lord." His informant replied. "And he didn't c-come alone. Potter brought allies with him. A fay-like creature that he claims is his servant, a shameless girl that is still a child, a bastard woman that might not even be a proper human and a dirty beast that somehow can talk." While the Great Britain's latest Dark Lord had little reason to doubt his informant's words as in the past the information provided had been rather accurate, a gut feeling was telling him that the bunch of misfits the Potter brought with him was not this simple.

"Allies you say?" Voldemort asked. Then, after a second-long pause, the continued: "Doesn't matter. We will crush them like we do it with everyone rising against us. That useless brat and his little 'friends' are no match to the power of those with pure blood!" He proclaimed boastfully, even if he himself wasn't feeling that confident.

"Of course, my lord." His informant agreed. "No one doubts your power, my lord." Nodding absentmindedly, Voldemort dismissed his minion:

"Now leave me, I need to adjust our plans. While the Potter brat is barely an annoyance, his reappearance will sure make Dumbledore and Bones more aggressive. We need to be ready to defend what is rightfully ours against them." With a deep bow, the informant left the room, leaving the Dark Lord to contemplate the situation; despite what he had just said, Voldemort was as assured of his inevitable victory as he made his agent think he was...

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	31. The First Strike

The thirty first chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**Impstar**, Reinforce is a planet-killer. And even with all of the limiters she's still wearing, she stands at least a head and shoulders above all other known mages. A powerhouse like her will have no trouble slaughtering wizards either.  
**AndreyKl**, **Jose19**, **vampireharry the 2**, **celf**, **MWkillkenny84**, **FateBurn**, **fellow**, **davycrockett100**, **ultima-owner**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Jlargent**, **Penny is wise**, **Biblio388**, **Guest**, **SeanHicks4**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**roughstar333**, replied you via the PM.  
**A Brilliant Loser**, nope, not **THE** Starlight Breaker - Harry can't cast it. ;)  
**silvereagle2121**, you might be a bit surprised, but I myself got into MGLN after I read Lupine's "Reinforced Magic". So, welcome to the pack, man.  
**Tsamoka**, William might make an appearance, but I've already settled on the curse-breaker team being mostly-goblin.

*** AN**: Why does everyone automatically assume that Umbridge is Voldemort's spy in the Ministry? As universally-hated as she is, I've never stated directly that she is the one working for the Dark Lord in any way. Also, why does everyone want Hermione? Not that she's bad or anything, but... Doesn't it get boring after a thousand stories with her as a deutarogonist or a love interest? Anyhow, she will make an appearance in this arc.

Also, for whatever reason, this chapter was really hard for me to write... And I don't really have excuses beyond 'I had no inspiration' for the delay. Nevertheless, I'm sorry that it took me so long to finally write something (even of this crappy quality) for this chapter.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XXXI: ****The First Strike**

The next morning, when most people still were on their ways to their jobs, Albus Dumbledore found himself entering a small cafe in Clerkenwell. The only thing special about this cafe was the fact that it was open around the clock... He still wasn't the first one to arrive there: Harry was already there, along with that Reinforce woman.

"Good morning, professor." The green-eyed teen greeted, while a very subtle magical barrier, probably meant to ensure the privacy of their conversation was erected around the table. "And thank you for agreeing to meet with us on our terms today."

"Think nothing of it, Harry." The Chief Warlock replied as took a seat across the table from the two mages. The two mages that – if his old eyes weren't deceiving him – were more than just colleagues. Not that the young Potter's relationship was his business... "What can I do for you today? Your request for this meeting was kind of vague about the topics you want to discuss."

"We wish to know, if there is any currently-unused housing in the country, preferably on the plains of England or Wales, that we can make use of. It would be the best if it as far away from any settlements as possible." Harry spoke.

"Well, there is an old hunting cabin south of Shrewsbury owned by the Prewett family that I might be able to transfer over to you temporarily... Thought, that place is quite run down as it wasn't used in several decades. I'm not even sure that any of the wards there are still active." The aged wizard replied.

"That would do." The young Potter replied, actually surprising Dumbledore: he fully expected being asked, whether better options were available. "We will be visiting that cabin tomorrow at noon..."

"Are you sure?" The Hogwarts headmaster asked. "Why would you want a house? Especially when you already have a nice apartment as your base of operations." Harry, however, didn't answer those questions directly, choosing to continue his previous line of thoughts instead:

"And be sure that the information about our visit there is leaked to Voldemort."

"I see..." Dumbledore replied after a few moments of silence. "So this is your plan."

"Yes." Reinforce confirmed. "Based on the information Harry-kun has provided, this Dark Lord of yours isn't someone who would just ignore us joining the war effort against him. By setting this trap up, we will be in control of where and when our contact with his forces will take place." She explained. "And whether he sends a team of assassins to deal with us quietly or a small army in attempt to overwhelm us with brute force, it's doesn't matter – we can handle it."

"Are you sure about that? Voldemort has a number of powerful fighters, be they wizards or beasts, under his command." The aged warlock asked.

"And we ourselves are no pushovers either." Harry countered.

"Well... If you are sure..." The Hogwarts headmaster said, still not quite believing that the young mages in front of him could really handle anything the Dark Lord might be wiling to throw at them. "I'll do my best to have the Voldemort's spy network tipped about your upcoming visit to Shrewsbury."

"Thank you, professor." The green-eyed teen replied.

"Don't mention it." Dumbledore said. There was a small pause, before he continued: "Though, if it won't be too much, I'd like to ask you to avoid killing Voldemort's followers as much as possible." He was a bit surprised when Reinforce nodded.

"Do I need to remind you that this is a war? We definitely won't be going out of our way to keep our enemies alive throughout the battle." The silver-haired lady said. "That said, nearly all of our offensive spells can be set to only knock the target out; thus, we have an option of bringing our opponents down without actually killing them. So, if you wish to have the Dark Lord's servants for interrogation, we see no problems with using non-lethal means to defeat them."

"Thank you. I'd really appreciate if you can do that." The aged wizard said in response.

"We will." The young Potter assured him. "But..." The green-eyed teen continued after a moment of silence. "We will require some assistance in this case: someone will need to arrest the defeated Death Eaters and take them to the Ministry's holding cells."

"That sounds reasonable." The Hogwarts headmaster agreed. "I'm sure that Ame-... director Bones will have a team of aurors on standby, ready to assist you." Harry nodded.

"It will be most helpful." He said. "Though, we aren't sure, when our trap will be sprang. It would probably be the best, if we can somehow send you a message that Voldemort's followers have arrived and the battle is starting."

"Hm..." Dumbledore hummed. "Let me think about it..." After a few seconds he said: "Yes, this might work." Reaching for his wand, he conjured a pair of identical glass rods. He then places some very complex charms on them... When he was done, the aged warlock handed one of those rods to the young mage: "I've placed the **Protean** charm on these rods; when you do something to yours, the same will happen to mine – this way you can quickly inform me that your trap was sprung. I'll then organize the team of aurors that will help you arrest the Death Eaters."

"Thank you, professor." Harry said. "We shall go start our preparations then." Dumbledore nodded: he too had lots of things that required his attention. "Have a nice day, professor." He said then, while Reinforce bowed her head a little as she silently said goodbye to the Chief Warlock.

"And you too, Harry, Ms. Yagami."

**~/ *** \~**

Late in the afternoon of that very same day one Severus Snape found himself kneeling before the Dark Lord as he delivered him the information that might be important for their quest of eradicating Potter:

"According to a conversation that I've eavesdropped, tomorrow at noon _the boy_ – or at least those bitches he had brought here with him – will be visiting the Prewett hunting cabin near Shrewsbury." The Hogwarts Potions Master reported.

"Thank you for the information, Severus." The Britain's most feared wizard said. "But something tells me that not everything here is that simple." Getting up from his throne, Voldemort walked up to a large window in the hall's side wall. "That particular house, it wasn't used in several decades, I believe. It might not be ruins just yet, but it certainly is worthless as a base of operations, especially when Potter already has a place where even I can't reach him."

"You believe this to be a trap then?" Snape asked.

"That is certainly a possibility." The Dark Lord replied. "However, this also presents us with an opportunity to destroy some of the Potter's entourage. And, if we're exceptionally lucky, we might even be able to capture the brat himself..." Turning sharply on his heels, Voldemort walked back to his throne. Once he was seated once more, he addressed one of the low-level Death Eaters that was his lackey for the day: "Summon the Lestrange brothers and teams two and three." He ordered. Then, as an afterthought, he added: "Rookwood as well."

"As you command, my Lord." The lackey replied, before disappearing through the door. A couple of minutes passed, and the man returned, leading thirteen more wizards into the room. Among those thirteen, a certain trio stood out, thanks to their more elaborate masks and the way other Death Eaters were giving them wide berth – these three wizards were the members of the Inner Circle, the elite of the Dark Lord's forces.

"Rabastan, Rodolphus." Voldemort said, once his followers were all kneeling before him. "I'm sure, you have heard that Potter decided to show up in our lands once again. And the little bastard has audacity to believe that he can do anything against the proper wizards, like us! He even went as far as to challenge us by setting up a trap! He will be waiting for you on the Prewett property in Shrewsbury tomorrow at noon. I want you two to take a team each and show that dirty-blood spawn what the might of the true wizards is! Kill anyone the brat brings with him, but capture him alive – I want to deal with him personally."

"As you wish, my Lord." The Lestrange brothers said as one.

"And what mission do you have for me, my Lord?" Rookwood asked then.

"You, Augustus, will observe the battle. I've heard that Potter and those barbaric fools he had brought with him wield some magic that is different from the one we were gifted with by our noble ancestors; I want to know more about it." Voldemort replied. "Stay hidden and learn as much about the abilities of our new enemies as you can. Don't interfere with the battle."

"I shall do as you command, my Lord." Rookwood replied.

"Good." Voldemort said then. "Now leave." Bowing to the ground, the thirteen wizards hurried out of their master's throne room, afraid of being hit with the **Cruciatus** curse if they were too slow. "This affects you too, Severus." The Britain most feared Dark Lord said, noticing that his spy in Dumbledore's camp was still there.

"Of course, my Lord." Snape replied, before standing up and hurrying out of the room, his black cloak billowing behind him in the ghostly wind.

**~/ *** \~**

It was around half past ten in the next morning, when the detection grid set up by Reinforce around the Prewett hunting cabin was tripped. And seeing as there were thirteen contacts in total, all of them appearing well within the area covered by the grid, there was little doubt in the mages' minds that it were the Death Eaters who triggered the 'alarm'.

"Alright!" Harry said, once it became clear that those wizards weren't going to leave the designated battlegrounds any time soon. "It seems that our bait was taken and the Dark Lord indeed has sent some of his men to 'greet' us. Let's not keep them waiting for too long, shall we?" He asked then, while summoning his barrier jacket as he switched his device to its active form of a clawed gauntlet. Reinforce nodded and shifted casual clothes she was wearing at the moment into her almost-iconic black mini-dress with golden accents.

"Yeah, let's go." The Lady of the Blessed Wind said, while also summoning the actual Tome and the battle staff Schwertkreuz to her hands.

"Good luck out there." Fate-chan, who was seeing the two of them off to the 'mission', said.

"Thank you." The green-eyed mage replied, while breaking the glass rod Dumbledore had given him yesterday: after all, it would take the old man some time to assemble the promised auror team. "Now then..." He continued after a moment as his magic circle appeared under his feet. "Let's do it. **Dimensional Transfer!**"

And in a small flash of light he disappeared towards Shrewsbury. Reinforce wasn't coming with him right now, though: according to their plan, she'd teleport to the battlefield once Harry had the undivided attention of the Death Eaters. This way, she'll be able to strike those bastards in the back without them getting a single chance to do something to save themselves. True, this was a bit risky, but should everything go according to this plan, they'll score a decisive victory against Voldemort's forces...

Appearing high above the Prewett hunting cabin, the young Potter immediately brought forth his wings while also surrounding himself with his mana cloak. And as he gently floated closer to the ground, he scanned the noticeably-surprised Death Eaters before him. And he could see only twelve of them. The thirteenth was using some sort of optic camouflage to hide himself... Not that this invisibility helped him remain unnoticed as Reinforce's detection grid could still locate him easily.

"I-Is that Potter?" - "Looks like him, but... he has wings?" - "Yeah, and he can fly!" - "How is that possible?" The Death Eaters chatted among themselves, all of their attention concentrated on the green-eyed mage floating in the air before them.

"Who cares, Dark Lord wants us to capture him!" One of the two men in more fancy masks barked, obviously annoyed with his subordinates. "Bring the brat down!" He ordered his men, before throwing a brownish curse in the green-eyed Potter's direction... Harry's response was to summon his **Greater Aegis** shield; not that he wasn't ready to dodge in case his shield didn't work as intended... Thankfully for him, this particular curse – and the other non-lethal means of incapacitation that the Death Eaters tried against him – couldn't get past his defenses.

And while the Dark Lord's minions were surprised by how their spells failed to bypass Harry's shield, a new player appeared on the battlefield: Reinforce teleported in, appearing in her black-winged glory in the air behind them. She paused for a moment when she saw a number of multi-colored beams of light impact her partner's shield. A moment later, though, she relaxed: none of those spells turned out to be powerful enough to break through Harry's defenses... Her fears quelled, the silver-haired beauty concentrated on fulfilling her role in this skirmish. And the first thing she did was deploying a barrier that would make it impossible for the servants of the Dark Lord to run away:

"**Gefängnis der Magie****!**" Of course, an expanding colorful sphere of magic passing through them made it clear to the Death Eaters that someone they hadn't noticed yet had joined the battle. However, they weren't given a good chance to find out who it was as Harry drew their attention back to himself by throwing a few dozens of basic magical bullets at them. Without lowering his shield.

A couple of the more arrogant dark wizards tried to hide from this attack behind their shields, but they quickly discovered that the projectiles the Potter brat sent after them were too powerful to be stopped like that. Yet, despite all that, these projectiles did no real damage. Not that ignoring them would be a bright idea as being hit by even one of those hurt quite a bit.

With every visible Death Eater's attention once again concentrated on Harry, Reinforce began charging up her next spell – a small ball of dark energy began growing at the bladed tip of her battle staff, Schwertkreuz, which was now pointing at the enemy cluster. With a little bit of luck, this attack would take all of the Dark Lord's servants out with one mighty blast. And even if Lady Luck decided to smile upon those bastards instead, most of them would still fall...

Harry, of course, recognized the spell his silver-haired partner was going to use: this particular piece of Ancient Belkan magic was too unique to be mistaken for anything else. While a bit worried that he himself might end within the blast range, the young Potter nevertheless grinned at the thought of finally having a chance to see this memorable spell live and not through "Arthra"'s observation spheres.

And he needn't to wait for long: within just a few seconds it already was all powered up and ready for use. Seeing that, the Earth-born mage stopped harassing the dark wizards before him and instead concentrated on reinforcing his shield while also subtly backing away from the soon-to-be ground zero. The Death Eaters, of course, noticed that, and shifted their attention to the avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky. At this point, however, there was nothing they could do to save their sorry asses...

"Close your eyes and disappear in the eternal darkness." The Lady of the Blessed Wind chanted as she reared battle staff Schwertkreuz for a strike. "**Diabolic Emission!**" With this, she thrust it towards an orange-sized dark-purple globe of condensed magic, causing it to 'explode'. In a blink of an eye, this ball of darkness expanded a thousand times over, much like a fireball of a real explosion would. That dozen of Death Eaters that stood out in the open never had a chance to do anything at all as the wall of magic crashed into them, knocking them out cold.

Once the Reinforce's spell ran its course and vanished into nothingness, it became clear that the thirteenth and final servant of the Dark Lord – the one that had remained hidden throughout this encounter – managed to avoid being swallowed by this sphere of destruction, if only just barely. That alone wasn't enough to keep him safe, however: as it grew in size, the ball of darkness had accumulated a lot of static charge, which was then released into the environment as multiple lightnings, one of which had struck the man. And in addition to shocking him nastily, that lightning also managed to screw up whatever magic he had been using for optic camouflage, leaving him wide open to the mage's attacks. A chance that Harry didn't let go waste.

"**Solar Flare!**" Quickly conjuring a large magical bullet, the young Potter sent it after the last Death Eater standing. The bastard was still recovering from being nearly electrocuted by a magical lightning, so he didn't even see the attack coming his way until it was too late. Not that he'd have been able to dodge it even if he was at his best...

* * *

Dumbledore as well as the auror team – lead by Rufus Scrimgeour himself no less – he had brought with him looked around the clearing their portkey had deposited them in. And as far as they could tell, they were off their mark by about a half of a mile. This mistake, however, wasn't caused by one of them screwing the portkey-creation spell up.

Instead, it was caused by one really huge magical barrier that towered over their intended destination while also cutting off all forms of magical transportation and communication. And, apparently, this barrier was also completely unnoticeable to the muggles as there was no way they would miss a city-sized semi-transparent energy dome otherwise.

Their thoughts on just how much work the oblivators would have needed to do if the barrier before them wasn't invisible to those without magic were interrupted a moment later by what was going on inside of the said barrier. Namely, there was an extremely-powerful magical explosion in there that took the form of a huge sphere of purplish darkness eagerly swallowing the surroundings and shocking what it didn't with purplish lightnings that danced across its surface.

Witnessing that _thing_ left the whole team of Ministry wizards, even Dumbledore himself, speechless. Never in their lives had any of them ever heard about magics so devastatingly-powerful. It was almost like this spell was from another world!

Alas, they didn't get much of a chance to observe this great spell in all of its glory as just a mere couple of seconds the globe of darkness dissipated into nothingness. Yet, everyone was still quite too shocked by the fact that a spell like that existed that none of them paid any attention to a single – even if pretty large – magic bullet zapping across the 'battlefield' to strike a single cloaked wizard that was still standing... What everyone noticed without fail, however, was the barrier being dispelled from the inside. It looked like the fight against the Death Eaters was over...

Thus, once their shock from witnessing the magic of the level they didn't believe was possible without major rituals, Dumbledore and the aurors headed for the battlegrounds. Of course, none of them felt like walking a damn mile there, so, instead, they all apparated straight to the 'ground zero'... which, much to their surprise, showed absolutely no signs of being hit with a sphere of darkness big enough to completely enclose a quidditch pitch.

"You've arrived a little faster than we expected." The green-eyed Potter said as he and Reinforce floated closer to the newly-arrived group of wizards. "I hope, our barrier hadn't caused you too much trouble." He added then, dispelling his wings as he landed in front of Dumbledore.

"Also." His silver-haired partner continued: "We remember the promise we've made; none of these ...men should have been killed by our spells directly. Accidental deaths from shock can't be ruled out though." She said while gently touching the ground besides Harry and dispelling her own wings.

"While it did cause our portkey to send us off our original destination, we're very thankful that even in such a remote place you ensured that the existence of magic would remain a secret." Rufus Scrimgeour said as he took a step forward towards the pair of mages.

"That... wasn't the intention of the barrier. It was deployed to prevent the Death Eaters from escaping." The Lady of the Blessed Wind replied carefully. After a moment, she continued: "And the fact that **Gefängnis der Magie** does hide magic is more of a side effect than the primary purpose: when this spell was first developed over a thousand years ago, it was meant to separate magical combatants from the civilian population as much as possible." She explained.

"I see..." The head of the Auror Offices replied.

"You seem to be very knowledgeable about magic, Ms. Yagami." Dumbledore commented.

"Yes." Reinforce agreed. "I've learned very many things about magic. Yet..." Here she gave a glance to the downed Death Eaters. "...It looks like there is always still much more for me to learn." There was a pause before she continued: "However, this discussion can wait. You have the servants of the Dark Lord to detain." The Hogwarts headmaster nodded.

"Of course, you are right, Ms. Yagami." He said before gesturing Scrimgeour and the aurors to get to it. "Still, I can't help but be worried that at least some of those men might have been killed in that... explosion that I believe to be your creation."

"As I've said, the majority of our spells has a stun-only mode that can't kill directly. Death as a side-effect, however, may not always be avoided – for example, someone stunned this way in the mid-air would fall to his or her death." Reinforce replied. "Regardless, you are at _war_ these people are our _enemies_, and, from what I hear, they aren't the nicest of the human beings. Having killed a few of them would not weight on my consciousness." Dumbledore shook his head, not liking the fact that the silver-haired woman before him didn't value the life as much as he himself did. Alas, she was also right: they were at war, and no war ever ended without casualties on both sides...

Securing the knocked out Death Eaters wasn't a hard task: within just a couple of minutes all thirteen bastards were shackled and prepared for transportation to the Ministry's holding cells. And since three of them belonged to Voldemort's inner circle, Rufus Scrimgeour was sure that by _interviewing_ them thoroughly his men will be able to gain much useful information about the Dark Lord's plans. Yes, today the forces of Light came off with flying colors, thanks to their new allies.

And as he watched his men portkey the defeated Death Eaters away, the head of the Auror Offices also made a mental note to avoid ending on the receiving end of the spells wielded by these magic users – mages – at all costs. He had absolutely no desire to personally experience the might of something like that sphere of dark energies that had been used to take down the Dark Lord's troop just a few minutes ago; witnessing that thing in action was more than enough...

He was then brought out of his musings by that Reinforce woman addressing Dumbledore:

"I believe, we're done here, Chief Warlock." The silver-haired Belkan caster said once the last of the defeated Death Eaters was transported away. Harry, who was standing besides her, nodded, also eager to go home and get some rest after the events of this morning... The Hogwarts headmaster remained silent for a few moments.

"Very well." The aged wizard said finally. "But before you go, there is one thing I'd like to talk about with you." The green-eyed teen nodded, before asking:

"What would that be, professor?"

"You two have helped us a lot today by defeating these Death Eaters. Now it's our turn to help you." Dumbledore replied. "I'll deliver you the phoenix tears tomorrow. And, if you don't mind, I'll also bring a team of curse-breakers to take a look at your friend."

"Thank you, professor. We appreciate this." The young Potter said. Then, he summoned a holographic display with the map of London on it and placed a marker near the London Fields park. "We will meet you there tomorrow at noon, if that's alright with you." The Hogwarts headmaster nodded: while he'd rather Harry gave him the address of the place he and his friends were staying at directly, he could understand their need to keep that information private.

"Yes, that would work." He replied.

"Once again, thank you, professor." Harry said. "If that's all, we'll get going." The Earth-born mage then turned to look at his partner. "Reinforce?" The silver-haired beauty next to him nodded, and a magical circle – which actually looked like a triangle with circles at its center and vertices – blossomed under her feet.

"**Dimensional Transfer!**" She called, before disappearing together with Harry in a small flash of light.

**~/ *** \~**

It was now afternoon and Voldemort's patience was starting to run thin. Almost five hours ago he had sent a ...decent team of Death Eaters, including whole three members of his inner circle, to deal with whatever useless scheme the Potter brat and his cohorts had cooked up against him and his rule, yet so far there was no response from them.

"My Lord!" A junior Death Eater who was little more than a glorified doorman called, returning the mightiest of the British Dark Lords back to the reality. "Lord Parkinson wishes to speak with you. He says, he has some important news for you."

"Invite him in." Voldemort ordered. His young minion who was too unimportant to be ever called by his name bowed, before disappearing behind the chamber's doors. Then, after a couple minutes, he returned with the patriarch of the Parkinson family following him.

"My Lord!" The man said as he knelt before his master's throne.

"I was told, you have some important news to share with me, Edward." Voldemort said, leveling a small glare at the man before him.

"Y-yes, my Lord!" Mr. Parkinson replied, fear clear in his voice. "Straight f-from the Ministry, my Lord." Swallowing nervously, he continued: "Earlier today, t-thirteen of our comrades were brought in b-by the aurors. I d-don't really know the details, b-but rumors say, t-they all had been d-defeated by j-just Potter and one of his b-bitches."

"**Crucio!**" And while his lieutenant's cries filled the hall, Voldemort was actually busy thinking up a way to show the Death Eaters that had failed him today just how much displeased he was with them. A failure like that required something more than just a few minutes under the Cruciatus curse. But before that, he needed to deal with the Potter brat and whatever trash he had brought with him... "Get lost." He barked at the Parkinson patriarch as he finally released him from the torture curse.

"Thank you, my Lord. Your graciousness knows no bounds." The man whimpered, before beating a hasty retreat from the chamber... Letting out a low growl, the Dark Lord turned his thoughts towards the menace that the damn Potter was. Razing the little bastard's home to the ground was impossible: even the best scrying spells still couldn't locate it. That left Voldemort with the only option of luring the brat out of whatever hole he was hiding in... But was there anything that was guaranteed to have the Potter showing up for his doom? After a few minutes, a useful idea finally occurred to him.

"Yes, that would do." Voldemort said to himself as he began working out his plan to destroy Potter...

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	32. A Bad Day

The thirty second chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**god of all**, **Impstar**, **FateBurn**, **AndreyKl**, **vampireharry the 2**, **ultima-owner**, **davycrockett100**, **Ranmaleopard**, **A Brilliant Loser**, **Penny is wise**, **Smokeing**, **The Ultimate Balance Chaos**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**celf**, Voldemort was revived a little more than 2 years before the events of the current arc. His resurrection took place just after the Christmas of 1994 and now it is late January of 1997.  
**roughstar333**, are you sure you aren't reading my mind? That is the exact solution that Voldemort tries to lure Harry out of his securely-hidden base.  
**Jose19**, "_**Nanoha**_"-style mages generally have more raw power, but their offensive spells usually are just energy projectiles. They deal direct damage and nothing more. "_**Harry Potter**_"-verse wizards - especially those of the darker kind - can use much nastier and more creative curses to even the odds. All in all, I'd say that Harry as an AAA-ranked mage is somewhere around Dumbledore's _current_ level right now. Reinforce is Reinforce, though, and even with her limiters still on, there is no match for her in either world.  
**fellow**, Reinforce does most of the work that chapter, and don't you forget that she had millennia of experience under her belt. And even with over the half her limiters on, she is head and shoulders above the others when it comes to raw power. At her full power... She is not a **planer killer** for nothing.  
**Liedral**, true, Harry's magic system and the Al-Hazardian one are different, but that doesn't automatically mean that they are incompatible just like his and Belkan/Mid-Childan are. Regardless, that doesn't really matter as Alicia won't be his opponent - or even a sparring partner - again any time soon, if ever.

*** AN**: You can't save everyone in the Hell that is war.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XXXII: ****A Bad Day  
**

The next day, just a few minutes before noon, Dumbledore and a team of curse-breakers – which consisted mostly of goblins in disguise – arrived at the entrance of the London Fields park. And none of them were really surprised to see that young Mr. Potter was already there, waiting for them.

"Good morning." The green-eyed mage greeted.

"Mr. Potter." One of the goblins, likely the leader of the curse-breaker team, greeted back with a small nod. Clearly, he believed that this exchange was wasting his time, yet he was too courteous to ignore his client's greeting. That, and being impolite was not good for business...

"Shall we get going?" Harry asked then.

"Of course." The same goblin replied. "The sooner we start working on this curse of yours, the sooner we will break it." There was nothing in his voice but extreme confidence. Hopefully, this confidence was not misplaced, and the goblins will be able to free Alicia from her curse. For a few moments no one said anything. Then, Dumbledore broke the silence:

"Lead the way, Harry." He said. Nodding, the green-eyed teen began walking, escorting the group of wizards and goblins away from the park. Their destination, however, wasn't the apartment Harry and his colleagues were renting. Instead, the first leg of their journey ended in an out of the way dead-end of a backstreet a little more than a block away from London Fields.

"Gentlemen." Mr. Potter addressed his companions as his magical circle sprang to life under his feet. And, for whatever reason, it was bigger than usual. "I'm going to transport you to our base now. Could you please step inside my circle?" He asked then.

"You aren't showing us the direct way to your lair, eh?" An elderly goblin curse-breaker commented in a raspy voice. "Maybe you are a little brighter than the people we usually do business with." Still he did as he and his colleagues were asked and walked into the eight-pointer star of Harry's magical circle... Deciding to leave this strange compliment without a response, the young Potter looked around to make sure that his transportation spell would leave no one behind.

"If you are ready..." He said while his magical circle glowed a little brighter. "**Dimensional Transfer!**" The green-eyed mage intoned, and a small flash later everyone was standing in front of a door of a random apartment, probably still somewhere in London. "Everyone's alright?" Harry asked next: he knew that such a method of transportation could shock an unaccustomed person.

"We all seem to be doing fine." The goblin in charge of the curse-breaker team barked in response. Dumbledore nodded in agreement: while this method of magical transportation was still a little bit disorienting, it was nowhere as bad as apparation. And the lack of the not-nice squeezing sensation every witch and wizard knew apparation for wasn't the only advantage of this form of magical travel: this **Dimensional Transfer** spell apparently allowed multiple passengers while requiring no physical contact between them and the caster... His further thought about the methods of transportation employed by the mages were interrupted when the door before them was opened by Reinforce.

"Do come in." The silver-haired woman said, inviting them into rather spacious, but otherwise mundane apartments. Once everyone was inside, she closed and locked the door, before motioning the curse-breakers to follow her. Dumbledore, probably curious about the curse, followed them as well... Not a minute later, they were standing before the recovery pod – which really did look like a high-tech coffin – that Alicia was lying in. Fate was also there, watching over her sister.

"So, is this our subject?" The goblin in charge of the curse-breaker team asked, while nodding towards the 'sleeping' blonde.

"Yes." Reinforce confirmed. "And, if you don't mind, we'd rather not lift the stasis field from her. There are no guarantees that the curse will let us reapply it properly, and without it we have but a few hours before it fully takes over Ms. Testarossa once again – something we would like to avoid." The goblin nodded thoughtfully.

"That is... inconvenient and definitely will bog us down,.." He said, while already making some preliminary scans of both the curse Alicia was under, and the spells Harry and Reinforce had used to contain it. "But we will do our best to work around your spells."

"Thank you." The Lady of the Blessed Wind said, before turning around and leaving the room: it wasn't very big and so her presence would only cause further problems for the curse-breakers... Fate, meanwhile, remained in there to oversee the curse-breakers' work.

"Ms. Testarossa?" Dumbledore asked as he approached the blond enforcer-in-training. "Is that young lady your sister?" Fate nodded without taking her eyes off the curse-breakers clustering around Alicia as they took their first steps in trying to understand the curse she had been subjected to. "If it wasn't for the difference in your ages, I would have thought that the two of you are actually twins." The Hogwarts headmaster added.

"Our similarity is... intentional." The red-eyed mage confided after a long and uneasy pause. This revelation certainly shocked the aged warlock, even if he didn't really show it: the phrasing the girl used made it sound like she had been created as the 'perfect copy' of her sister. And so he found himself torn between wishing to know more – his discreet scans of the young-er miss Testarossa showed that his two best guesses on how she was so similar to Alicia were wrong – and protecting the girl from backlash she would undoubtedly suffer, should certain elements of the wizarding world learn about her being ...either a modified or even fully-artificial human.

Then, a couple of moments later, he realized that magic could allow his both to satisfy his curiosity and guard Ms. Fate Testarossa secrets from those who would probably use that information to hurt her: despite using a rather threatening scythe as her focus during fights, she was a good girl and one needn't even read her mind to see that. So, he discretely cast a **Muffliato** charm to hide the rest of their conversation from others. That didn't go unnoticed by the blond mage, but even if she had sensed him using magic, at the moment she didn't do anything beyond giving him a curious look. With their privacy assured, the Dumbledore spoke:

"That is intriguing, and I certainly would like to know more about how you came to be as you are, Ms. Testarossa. And I definitely will keep your secrets safe." He said. "But I must caution you against unveiling you true story to the wizarding world in general. I do my best to be as unprejudiced as I can be, so you don't have to fear me, but there are people out there that, should they learn you're something other than your average Jane, will treat you as a second-class citizen at best and as something to be exterminated at worst." Fate frowned.

"Thank you for the warning." She finally said after a short pause. "And in the light of this revelation, I probably shouldn't reveal my history even to you, but... I think I can trust you with this information, Mr. Dumbledore."

"Thank you. I promise you that your trust in me won't be misplaced." The Hogwarts headmaster said then. Letting out a sigh, Fate began her story:

"It all begins a little over a quarter of a century ago... There was an experimental magical reactor – who had the bright idea to build it near a residential area anyway? – and one day it melted down, I'll spare you the details of that disaster; both my mother and Alicia, who was only five at the time, got a serious case of mana poisoning: a condition that damages their bodies anytime they draw upon their magic." The blond mage made a short pause, before continuing: "And if that alone wasn't bad enough, something happened with my sister and her health began failing. She was hospitalized, but the medics couldn't really do anything about it... After a few months, her clinical death occurred."

"Oh my." That was about the only thing Dumbledore could say right now.

"By a lucky coincidence, our mother was there when that happened and she placed had placed Alicia under stasis that prevented her biological death. And ever since then, our mother... Well... She became quite obsessed with bringing Alicia back to life. She spent years researching various way that might be able to revive my sister. Eventually, our mother learned about a criminal scientist who was trying to develop a cloning technology that could give a dead person a second life. And she decided to throw her support behind that project. I was the first clone – at least, the first one that lived – produced via this technology. Alicia and I are identical in terms of genetics; we essentially are twins. And I even have her memories prior to her 'death'. However, maybe because she wasn't truly dead, or maybe it was due to some other reason, instead of being just a new body for her, I became my own person."

"That's quite a story." Dumbledore said. "But, how was your sister revived, Ms. Testarossa?" He asked next, curiosity getting the better of him. "Also via cloning, or did you mother try another route?" Fate remained silent for a few seconds, before finally deciding to answer the aged wizard's questions.

"Actually, I don't know. I wasn't there when it happened. Though, I believe, ancient magic of the lost civilization called Al-Hazard was involved. The curse Alicia had been placed under is believed to also be of that magic system." The Hogwarts headmaster let out a humming sound.

"And your mother didn't say anything about it?"

"My mother has been MIA for almost three years and all evidence points towards her being dead." The blonde replied coolly: she might have accepted Precia as her mother, a person who had brought her into this world, but that didn't mean that she forgave that woman for all the abuse she had inflicted upon her... There were a few moments of silence then, before Dumbledore spoke:

"Thank you for telling me this story, it was most interesting." He said. "Now, if you excuse me, I believe should deliver Mr. Potter the phoenix tears I've promised him." Fate nodded, before turning her attention to the team of curse-breakers working on her sister. Dispelling the privacy charms, Dumbledore made his way to the living room, where the green-eyed teen-mage was sitting on a sofa, watching the TV listlessly.

"You want something, professor?" Harry asked as the Hogwarts headmaster sat besides him.

"I promised you the phoenix tears, right?" The elderly wizard said as he produced three vials out of a pocket of his coat and placed them on the coffee table in front of him.

"There are empty." The young Potter couldn't help but point out.

"That they are, for now." Dumbledore replied calmly. After a moment, he continued: "I had a feeling that you'd prefer to have some definite proof that I give you what you've asked for. So, we're going to fill them right here and right now. Fawkes, my fiery friend, had graciously agreed to provide you with his tears." Harry nodded. He also had to admit that the old man was probably right: he would have probably suspected some foul play had he been given already filled and sealed vials.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore apparently somehow communicated with his phoenix companion and a few moments later the great bird appeared in the living room in a fiery flash. Now, the green-eyed teen might have expected something like this, yet the suddenness of the firebird's arrival still caught him by surprise and he involuntary let out a startled cry. Almost immediately, Reinforce entered the room, some bluish spell Harry couldn't recognize glowing around her right hand. However, seeing as this whole commotion was caused by just a phoenix, she canceled her spell and went back to... doing whatever she had been doing previously.

"Alright, Fawkes, my friend, let's do it?" Dumbledore said as the fiery bird floated down onto the table. The phoenix then nodded, before walking up to the vials. Bowing his head to the nearest of the three he cried a few tears into it. Then he repeated the procedure with the other two vials. Once done here, the phoenix took off and, after making a circle around the room, landed on the Hogwarts headmaster's shoulder. "Thank you, Fawkes." The elderly wizard said, caressing his feathered friend.

"Yes, thank you, Fawkes; you've helped my friends greatly." Harry praised the fiery bird. And while Fawkes was busy posing as if he was some sort of a super-hero on a pedestal, Dumbledore sealed the vials and handed them over to the young Potter.

"Here you go." He said.

"Thank you, professor." The green-eyed investigator replied while pocketing the tears... There was a rather long pause then. Eventually, Harry broke it by asking: "And while we're waiting here for the curse-breaker team to finish their work for today, why don't you tell me how's Hogwarts faring these days?" Dumbledore nodded. This sounded like a nice way to kill some time...

* * *

It was around ten past four in the afternoon, when the curse-breakers were finally done with their examination of Alicia. And now they were going to present the results of their work to both Chief Warlock and the mages. Once everyone assembled in the living room, the leader of the team began:

"We've finished the first round of tests on Ms. Alicia Testarossa." He said. "Unfortunately, so far we were unable to get an understanding of the nature of the curse she had been subjected to: it is using magic principles we are not familiar with. Thus, at the moment we can give no estimations on how soon we will have the way to remove it found and ready to use." Harry was sure that Fate-chan already knew this, yet one could still clearly see her losing heart. "That said." The goblin continued. "We will continue searching for the way to free young Mr. Testarossa. There is no curse that can't be broken and this one is no different."

"Thank you, master Irongrip." Dumbledore said. The young Potter and his friends also thanked the curse-breakers: they had worked hard today to find a solution to Alicia's problem. And while they might have failed to break the curse today, the goblin took too much pride in their work to just give up after such a small set back; Harry was sure that sooner or later they will find a way to free Alicia. "For now, let us call it a day and..." Suddenly, the aged warlock paused as a ghostly panther appeared outside of the room's window.

"What's that, professor?" The green-eyed mage, who also saw that thing, asked.

"This is a patronus, a corporeal one." Dumbledore explained. "Something serious must have happened for Kingsley to send me a message this way... Could you please let it through your wards." Harry nodded to Reinforce, who then momentarily powered the barrier around the apartment down, thus letting the ghostly thing in. Unfortunately, everyone got only a few moments to enjoy the warm feeling of being protected before the magical construct opened its mouth and 'ruined' the day:

"_**Professor, we have a situation here.**_" It said in a deep male voice. "_**A group of Death Eaters has taken hostages in the Diagon Alley. They demand Mr. Potter to be brought before them. The aurors currently in the area are ordered not to intervene: Death Eaters have threatened to kill the hostages if they do. They've also said that they will kill the hostages if Mr. Potter isn't there by half past four.**_" Its message delivered, the patronus dissipated. The people in the room exchanged looks.

"We have around ten minutes before the deadline." Dumbledore observed after a lengthy pause. Then, he addressed young Mr. Potter: "Harry, I beg you, allow us to bring you to the Diagon Alley; don't condemn all those people to death."

"I will." The green-eyed investigator agreed. "However, I'd be thankful if you let us handle the situation our way." He said, while looking round Reinforce, Hedwig and Fate-chan. "We, of course, will do our best to make sure that all of the hostages make out of this mess alive." The three girls nodded in agreement.

"Alright." The Hogwarts headmaster said. Really, right now he had no ideas on how to deal with this situation beyond doing as demanded and hoping that the Death Eaters wouldn't kill the hostages regardless. If these mages had a better plan to save those innocent people, then who was he to stop them from using it? Nodding, Harry instructed his colleagues:

"Hedwig, you are coming with me; Fate-chan, Rein, I want you to stand by for now. Once professor brings me to the Diagon Alley, I'll provide you with the coordinates for the **Dimensional Transfer** and the further information on the situation." The two red-eyed beauties nodded. There was a small pause, before the young Potter continued with the instructions: "If the peaceful release of the hostage fails,.. Reinforce, I want you to put your strongest barrier around them; Fate-chan, use your Sonic form to take our the most threatening of the Death Eaters before they can enact their magic to harm the hostages. I'll try to draw their attention to myself. Hopefully, their orders to capture me alive for their master are still standing and I won't be risking too much by attacking them head on."

"Understood." The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind replied as she magically changed her casual clothes into that almost-iconic black mini-dress of hers and armed herself by summoning both the simulacrum of the Tome and the great battle staff Schwertkreuz. Fate too agreed with his plan, if only because there wasn't a better one. Unlike Reinforce, however, she hadn't activated her barrier jacket or switched her device into its active form yet.

"Hmm..." She 'said' then. "And what should we do about master Irongrip and his team?" That question made Harry pause for a moment.

"Just let the through the barrier." He said after a second. And as soon as Fate-chan gave him a nod, he turned his attention back to Dumbledore: "Let's go, professor; we don't have time to waste." He said. Then, he added: "And, if possible, could you please land me somewhere those bastards wouldn't notice me right away." The elderly warlock nodded.

"Fawkes, will you help us?" He asked his fiery familiar then. Flying a wide circle above Dumbledore's head, the phoenix let out a trill, before engulfing the two men and one fairy-like unison device in his flames and teleporting them away. A moment later they reappeared inside the 'Leaky Cauldron'. And given how sudden their arrival was, Harry's wasn't really surprised that the pair of aurors that happened to be inside the pub at the time went for their wands. Thankfully for everyone, they had recognized Fawkes and his 'passengers' before any spells could have been fired.

"It's good that you've come, professor." One of those aurors said. "We've almost run out of time.." It was all but written on the man's face that he wanted to do something to help the hostages, but was scared into inaction by the Death Eaters' threat to execute them, should the Ministry forces try to free them... "And you're here too, Mr. Potter." The auror said then, as he turned his attention to Harry. "Please, do something to save those people!" He asked.

"I'll do my best." The young mage replied. He hoped with his heart that lady Luck will smile upon him and he will be able to save everyone, but with his mind he knew that that might not be possible...

"Let's go, Harry." Dumbledore said, breaking him out of his thoughts. Nodding, the green-eyed teen followed him out of the pub and into the Diagon Alley. As they stepped through the brick arc, they saw a dozen or so of aurors crowding near the Gringotts bank. A little further down the street, there was a platform that was occupied by twenty or so Death Eaters and about twice as many their hostages... Raising his eyes towards the roofs, the young Potter scanned the area for the best places for Reinforce and Fate-chan to teleport to.

"_Do you read me?_" He communicated to them telepathically. A few moments later, when the girls gave him positive responses, he continued: "_I'm uploading the destination coordinates to you._"

"_Understood._" The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind replied. "_We're on our way._" And a couple of seconds later, the girls appeared above the Diagon Alley in small flashes of light. Thankfully, that didn't alerted the Death Eaters to their presence... Scanning the area with his eyes once again to make sure that no 'surprises' were awaiting him and the girls, Harry began walking towards the aurors ranks next to the Gringotts back, doing his best not to draw any unwanted attention to himself, of course. He managed to cover maybe half a hundred yards, when Reinforce broadcasted a telepathic message: "_Is it just me, or these people behave unlike other hostages?_"

This message was accompanied by a data package that contained a few seconds of video with three people – a rather plump blond woman in mid-twenties that appeared to be neither very poor nor very rich; a fifty-something mostly-bald stout man with a goatee that wore rather expensive deep-purple robes; and a brown-haired young man in muggle-looking clothes – high-lighted on every frame. And after watching this video, Harry had do admit that his silver-haired lover had a point, something was really off about these three...

"_I concur._" Fate replied. "_Do you think they are these... ah... Death Eaters in disguise?_"

"_That is a possibility._" The young Potter said. "_Another possibility is them being mind-controlled_." Which of the two possibilities was worse, the young Potter wasn't sure. Shaking his head, he continued: "_Either way, I think these three should be stunned as soon as possible. Just in case. I'll notify the Ministry forces about this as well._"

"Something happened, Harry?" Dumbledore asked, noticing that the green-eyed teen next to him seemed to have his attention somewhere far away.

"The girls." The young mage replied. "Noticed some hostages behaving strangely. We currently believe that they are either disguised Death Eaters or victims of mind control." Summoning a holographic display from his device, he showed the Hogwarts headmaster the video fragment Reinforce had shared with him. "These three should be stunned immediately, once the current status quo is broken. If our fears aren't baseless, this might save a few lives." Dumbledore let out a sigh.

"I don't like attacking civilians, but you and your friends are probably right. If these three are Death Eaters or under _**Imperius**_ curse, they can become a danger to other hostages. I'll issue the aurors an order to stun them, should, as you've put it, the current status quo be broken."

"Thank you, professor." Harry replied with a nod. The aged warlock returned the nod.

* * *

Dumbledore and Harry were still busy instructing the aurors, when the Death Eaters decided that they've waited for long enough.

"**It's almost half past four now.**" Their apparent leader said in a magically-empowered voice. "**Show yourself, Potter, or we will kill these blood traitors.**" Harry let out a sigh:

"It looks like out time has run out." He said to no one in particular. Then, he addressed the aurors: "Be ready to act at any moment now." After a moment, he added: "You too, Hedwig." The fay-like girl perched on his shoulder nodded as she summoned her knight's clothing.

"Aye aye, _papa_."

"Let's go, then." Harry said, letting out another sigh. "Good luck to us all." He whispered under his breath as he began walking down the Diagon Alley. Once he was a few yards past the aurors' position, he stopped: "Well, bastards, I'm here!" He then shouted to the Death Eaters. "Release the hostages." His response was laughter from the Dark Lord's minions.

"**Release the hostages?**" The same masked wizard laughed mockingly. "**Who said anything about releasing them?**" At the same time, another Death Eater grabbed one of the hostages – an extremely-scared young girl – by the collar and raised her into the air while leveling his wand at her head. Then, he began his incantation. It wasn't the killing curse or any other spell Harry was familiar with, but the young investigator had no doubts that the girl in the man's hands would die slowly and painfully should the bastard be allowed to fire his curse.

"_Fate-chan!_" The green-eyed mage cried out telepathically. Fate, however, saw that too and was already acting. Just a moment later Bardiche's blade sliced through the Death Eater's arm in a golden flash. Since she hadn't activated the indiscriminate mode, the blade of raw magic projected by her device didn't dismember the man; it only made the masked bastard feel like his arm was cut off by an angry lightning.

"Argh-h-h-h!" The Death Eater cried in pain, releasing the girl he was about to kill. He didn't get a chance to retaliate as a moment later the red-eyed enforcer-in-training drove her blade through the side of his chest. Once again, this couldn't kill the man, but the intensive pain was more than enough to knock him unconscious.

And while the other Death Eaters – and Ministry's aurors too for that matter – were stunned by Fate's attack, Harry and Reinforce weren't wasting time. Since he had no clear line of sight for the special trio of hostages, the young Potter concentrated on dealing with the Voldemort's servants, whom he could see clearly. Acting as fast as it was possible for him, he summoned a small flock of his basic magical bullets, before sending them towards the masked wizards. The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind, meanwhile, fired a few magical bullets of her own in attempt to stun the suspicious hostages before they got a chance to do anything that might endanger the real civilians.

The Death Eaters, unfortunately, recovered quickly enough and their rank was able to raise shields in time to protect themselves from Harry's barrage. Since the young mage didn't put all that much power into his projectiles in order to send them out as fast as possible, most of those bullets were stopped. And those few that did get past the shields and found their targets weren't powerful enough to knock those Death Eaters out...

Things didn't go quite as planned for Reinforce either. She was able to stun two of the suspicious hostages before they could do anything, but the third one managed to pull some sort of cord hidden under his shirt just a moment before a magical bullet knocked him unconscious. For a moment or two nothing happened.

Then, a big alchemical explosion rocked the Diagon Alley.

Almost a dozen of unfortunate souls that were too close to the bomb were killed. The girl, whom Fate-chan had just saved from execution survived only because the blond mage had protected her with her own body. And the enforcer-in-training herself survived only because her barrier jacket – however lightly-armored it might be – took the brunt of the blast's force for her... All other hostages and even the majority of the Death Eaters received wounds of varying severity.

The realization that the Dark Lord and his minions had really stooped to using such inhuman tactics had left Harry and Reinforce just as stunned as being caught in the actual explosion would have had. That was probably why neither of them even tried to finish the masked bastards while they were too dazed by the alchemical blast to defend themselves properly... Not that the aurors or even Dumbledore himself were much better – those men haven't done anything at all in this confrontation yet.

By the time the two mages were ready to resume the fight, so were their enemies. And the Death Eaters weren't going to fight fair and square; instead, quite a few of them decided that still-recovering Fate and the remaining hostages were much better targets.

Dashing forward as fast as he could, Harry grabbed a Death Eater's wand arm, redirecting whatever nasty curse he was casting away from Fate-chan. Then, he sent the bastard flying into a small group of his 'comrades' with a punch, causing the whole group to fall onto the ground in a tangle of limbs.

"Hedwig!" The green-eyed mage called.

"Aye." His miniature partner replied as she rose from her perch on his shoulder and flew towards the knocked down minions of Voldemort.

"Surrender yourselves peacefully and you will be given..." She began, only to be interrupted by the laughter coming from the group. They certainly didn't see the young unison device as anything but an annoyance. They even believed that a single stunner would be enough to deal with her. What a mistake. The spell was easily swatted away by an upgraded **Panzerschild**. "That was the wrong answer." Hedwig warned her opponents as lightnings started cracking around her little body. "**Kettenblitz!**" The lightnings intensified for a moment, before arching towards the Death Eaters. And as soon as there was the contact, the masked men began crying in pain as angry electricity now coursed through their bodies.

While Hedwig was busy frying a group of the Dark Lord's minions and Harry was trying his best to patch Testarossa's wounds with whatever healing spell he knew, Reinforce descended from the rooftops onto the battlefield proper, simultaneously raising a number of rather obscure Belkan shielding spells in front of the hostages to protect them from incoming attacks against them.

A second later the silver-haired beauty was really glad that she had chosen this particular spell: any other shield wouldn't have been able to stop those sickly-green beam the Death Eaters used. Taking an advantage of the shock that stunned the dark wizards – apparently, they didn't believe that their attack could be stopped, at least not like this – Reinforce counterattacked as she landed among the remaining hostages in her full black-winged glory.

"**Blutiger Dolch!**" Probably a whole hundred of blood-red daggers materialized around her out of thin air. A moment later they were sent flying towards the Death Eaters by some invisible force. And the basic shields that the masked men hastily erected to protect themselves turned out to be quite useless against an attack like this: the blood daggers simply ripped through those defensive magics as if they were nothing more than wet tissue paper. Whatever physical armor the followers of Voldemort were wearing under those black cloaks of theirs too did little to protect them from the overwhelming force of Reinforce's attack: once the daggers reached their targets, they exploded viciously, downing the entire group of the masked bastards with ease.

Immediate threat been dealt with, however, didn't mean that the hostages were truly safe now, and the Lady of the Blessed Wind knew it. She had to do something to protect these people from (more) harm. But what? Getting them far away from the battlegrounds would have been the way to go if Reinforce had any good destinations in mind – she knew not the locations of any magical hospitals around here; and picking some random location for teleport was almost guaranteed to expose the existence of magic to 'muggles', a big no-no on this world...

Well, she could always transport the hostages to the relative safety of auror positions down the Alley. And all things considered, that was not a bad idea. Simply erecting a defensive barrier around the hostages and hoping for the best was much riskier. With that in mind, the silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind began preparing the **Dimensional Transfer** spell: transporting so many people was not easy even for someone like her.

And because she was concentrating on the mass-teleportation spell so much, Reinforce didn't notice that four of the Death Eaters she though she had taken down with 'blood daggers' getting back onto their feet until their were already sending curses her way. Even worse, as there was no way to cancel the **Dimensional Transfer** spell right away, she had no chance of raising a shield to protect herself from the incoming attacks in time.

As it turned out, she needn't worry about that: Albus Dumbledore finally decided to actively participate in the battle, and the first thing the old man did was levitating a few stones to intercept the curses. Then, he sent stunners at the four servants of the Dark Lord. Two of those stunners even connected with their intended targets, while the rest drew the masked bastards' attention away from Reinforce and the hostages... Not the one to waste such a chance, Reinforce went back to preparing mass-teleportation while the Chief Warlock dealt with the remaining Death Eaters.

"**Dimensional Transfer!**" The silver-haired beauty called a few seconds later. This was followed by a flash of light and she, along with all of the hostages that were still alive, teleported a hundred yards down the Diagon Alley, reappearing behind the aurors' positions. "Give these people the medical attention they need." Reinforce requested, ignoring a few startled cries coming from the Ministry's law enforcers. As about half a dozen of volunteers detached themselves from the rest of the aurors on the scene and began transporting the injured to the St. Mungo's hospital, the Lady of the Blessed Wind erected a powerful barrier to protect everyone from stray spellfire.

For a moment she even wondered, whether this was really necessary: between Dumbledore, Hedwig, Harry and Fate-chan – who was ready to fight once again – the remaining Death Eaters were all knocked down in a matter of moments. Then, the situation changed, and not for the better.

Out of nowhere, a fresh platoon of Death Eaters appeared. Accompanying them there was nearly a hundred of animated human corpses, each carrying runic inscriptions on their chests. And as if this wasn't bad enough, the Dark Lord himself decided to join the battle.

"Potter is mine; kill everyone else." Voldemort ordered, his wand drawn and ready to unleash deadly curses upon his enemies.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	33. The Battle of the Diagon Alley

The thirty third chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**frankieu**, **vampireharry the 2**, **FateBurn**, **davycrockett100**, **ultima-owner**, **fellow**, **Ranmaleopard**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**The Ultimate Balance Chaos**, **Nerfhearder69**, hehe.  
**roughstar333**, well, only the Death Eaters and their boss are using lethal force; this doesn't mean that there will be many (any) of them left standing when the battle is over. Our foursome will subject them to a thorough *befriending*.  
**Jose19**, yep, Harry and Voldemort will have their fight in this chapter. And while we already know who will be the winner, how is still the question.  
**Impstar**, Reinforce rocks, that's all I can say. An army of animated corpses is nothing before her.  
**FreeTraderBeowolf**, if it wasn't for the now-freed-hostages that Reinforce needs to protect until they are evacuated, this battle would have been over much sooner.

*** AN**: I'm running out of the plot I've prepared in advance, so it is quite likely that after another couple of chapters I will place this story on hiatus in order to freely think up the continuation of the plotline.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XXXIII: ****The Battle of the Diagon Alley  
**

As the inferi began shambling down the alley, Dumbledore and the aurors sent numerous fire spells at them... Only to discover that the runic arrays etched onto the corpses' bodies made them immune to such attacks. Well, things like **Fiend Fire** were almost guaranteed to overpower those protections and burn the undead to ashes, but no Light-sided wizard was willing to try such spells: losing control over a cursed fire in Diagon Alley would lead to a full-scale disaster!

Next, the aurors tried cutting and piercing spells to limit the mobility of the inferi. Alas, the same runic array they made those _things_ immune to fire protected them from other magics as well. These news scared the Ministry's forces even more, and Voldemort was not ignorant of that.

"Destroy them." He ordered the Death Eaters that had arrived with him. The masked wizards needn't be asked twice and began raining curses upon the aurors' positions. A few of these curses were even aimed right at the hostages that weren't evacuated to the St. Mungo's hospital yet. And the only thing standing between these curses and their targets was Reinforce's barrier. Lady Luck was on the Light side's side, though: there were no unforgivables or even dedicated shield-breakers among those curses, so the barrier survived through the barrage, if only barely.

As she quickly reset her barrier back to its full power, the silver-haired beauty wished for the team evacuating hostages to finish their job as soon as possible. While it was true that she was strong – very strong, indeed – Reinforce didn't believe that she will be able to protect the hostages, should warlock Dumbledore and the aurors fail to hold the Death Eaters and their army of magically-protected walking dead off. And, as far as she could see, the Dark Lord's troops won't be impeded by the Alley's defenders for long... She wasn't the only one who saw things like that either.

"_Hedwig, Fate-chan!_" Harry called telepathically. "_Go help Dumbledore and Reinforce._" He asked then. His fairy-like companion nodded, accepting the order, before flying away to assist her 'mama' a moment later. Ms. Testarossa, meanwhile...

"_Are you sure you will be alright, facing this Dark Lord on your own?_" She asked with come worry in her 'voice'. She was about to add something else, but Harry spoke before she could:

"_I'll manage somehow._" He reassured her, though his words didn't sound very convincing.

"_Alright._" Fate-chan said with a sigh. "_Stay safe._" She requested then.

"_I'll try._" The green-eyed mage mouthed in response. Apparently satisfied, the blonde mock-saluted to him, before zapping away to lend Dumbledore and the aurors a helping hand.

"So... You are going to fight me alone, Potter?" Voldemort asked his nemesis then. "How arrogant of you to believe that you, an abominable traitor to the noble magic of our ancestors, can win against me, a descendant of the Great lord Salazar Slytherin himself!" Harry's only response to this was to reactivate his mana cloak and rise a couple of feet above the ground on his 'wings'. He also prepared half a dozen of **Starfall Shooter** bullets; those now hovered behind him, ready to be unleashed upon his enemies at the moment's notice. And while Voldemort couldn't recognize the spell, he could well recognize its purpose: offense. "You aren't just a traitor to magic itself, Potter; you're also a barbarian that knows nothing about how duels are fought between the wizards."

"This is a war, not some tournament." Harry shot back, while also sending his magical bullets flying straight at the snake-faced Dark Lord. Those were intercepted by a magical shield a couple of moments later. That shield wasn't a **Protego** or some other common shield, but, nevertheless, seeing his attack stopped like that did nothing to help Harry's confidence about this fight.

"Is that all what you've got, Potter?" Voldemort asked tauntingly. "**Avada Kedavra!**" The green-eyed mage swiftly moved out of the curse's way, while firing another half a dozen of magical bullets at the Dark Lord in response. "How very original." The most feared wizard on the British Islands droned as he once again summoned his shield to intercept the incoming projectiles.

"How about this, then?" Harry asked, while charging up a much more powerful attack. "**Solar Flare!**" A second later the spell impacted Voldemort's shield and, after a moment of struggle, shattering it. Alas, breaking the shield left the projectile with little mana, and it dissipated harmlessly before it could reach its intended target. Nevertheless, having his shield broken like this left the Dark lord momentarily staggered and, thus, open for attacks. And the young TSAB officer knew better than to waste such an opportunity. "**Starfall Shooter!**" Having no time to erect a shield against this attack, Tom Riddle was forced to perform a combat roll to avoid being hit by a 'bastard magic' spell.

"Curse you, Potter!" He howled while dodging another barrage of small magical bullets Harry sent his way. "**Confringo! Reducto! Bombarda!**" Voldemort sent an array of blasting curses at his opponent in hopes of regaining the initiative... Too bad for him, his opponent could very well cast his spells while on the move and so the stream of magical bullets heading his way didn't end. "**Avada Kedavra!**" His killing curse was dodged as well. "I'm going to end you, Potter!" He promised angrily. Harry's only response to that was to attack. And now he wasn't fighting nice anymore.

"**Whips of Light!**" A magical circle appeared under Voldemort's feet. A moment later eight cords of mana wrapped themselves around his body, immobilizing the snake-faced bastard completely. "**Starfall Shooter!**" The green-eyed mage called, sending half a dozen of magical bullets at his enemy. Only this time the projectiles weren't following a straight path and, instead, each came at the bound Dark Lord from a different angle.

Voldemort grid his teeth, but nevertheless admitted that he was now forced to use his trump card. Calling upon his magic, he shape-shifted into an intangible cloud of black smoke, breaking free from the binds as the magical bullets passed right through him. Quickly reforming back into his corporeal form, he fired a Killing Curse at the Potter spawn. Alas, the brat managed to recover from his shock fast enough to dodge it, even if by a hair's breadth.

"**Lumino!**" Harry intoned and a moment later a magical stun grenade went off in front of Voldemort's face, blinding him with a powerful flash of light. "**Diamond Teeth!**" Not able to see the spell used against him, the Dark Lord quickly switched back to his black-smoke-apparition mode. Which actually did save him from being impaled by numerous giant spikes of pure mana... Moving to the spot not covered by the deadly spikes, Voldemort canceled his intangibility and threw an array of piercing and cutting curses. "**Greater Aegis!**" A magical shield adorned with his magic 'circle' sprung into existence in front of the Potter youth, easily intercepting the incoming attacks.

"I will have your scull decorating my throne chamber when I become the eternal king of all magicals, Potter!" The snake-faced wizard taunted, while silently casting a string of curses at his nemesis. Harry simply moved out of their way, before returning fire with a few shots of his **Solar Flare** spell...

* * *

Things weren't going all that well for the rest of the Light side either. And it would have been much much worse if not for Fate and Hedwig keeping the Death Eaters occupied. Even with the masked bastards kept busy by the girls, their auror positions were barely holding up against the army of the undead that had been summoned by the Dark Lord.

Those things were relentless and, thanks to the runes etched on their bodies, nearly immune to all of the spells Dumbledore and the aurors were willing to use. Even transfiguration didn't really work: the inferi appeared to have enough intelligence not to run into spikes or other traps created before them. Thus, the best the Light wizards could do was keeping the advancing horde of zombies from surmounting their barricades by bombarding them with various bludgeoning and staggering spells.

Thankfully, that wasn't going to be much of a problem for long: they only needed to hold their positions until the final group of the hostages was evacuated from the Diagon Alley. Once that happened, Reinforce will be finally able to commit her prodigious magical powers to dealing with this army of the living dead...

...Finally, after what felt like hours for many, the aurors transporting the victims of the hostage taking to the 's hospital returned for the last group. Another minute and none of the hostages remained in the Alley. Immediately, the Lady of the Blessed Wind dropped the no-longer-needed barrier and began the preparation for her counterattack against the Voldemort's 'army'. Rising a few feet into the air on her raven wings, before summoning a Belkan triangle in front of herself. A moment later, spheres of condensed mana, black lightnings randomly discharging from them, began forming at this triangle's vertices. A few seconds passed and her spell was ready to be unleashed upon her enemies.

"I'm going to deal with the undead now!" Reinforce announced to Dumbledore and the aurors, while simultaneously relaying this message to Fate, Harry and Hedwig telepathically. "If you don't want to be caught in the blast, stay away from the center of the street." She advised. And since the aurors could feel the raw power of her spell, they quickly did as asked... Once her line of fire was clear of her allies, the silver-haired beauty let her magic loose: "Resound the horn of the end. **Ragnarök!**"

Having noticed Potter suddenly rise much higher into the air, Voldemort got a hint that something big was about to happen. And not taking any chances with this strange magic the brat and his new allies wielded, he quickly turned himself into intangible black smoke. Which turned out to be a very good thing for him. Just a couple of moments later three thick beams of magical energy exploded along the Diagon Alley. And even though he wasn't a corporeal entity at the moment, Voldemort could still feel the sheer might of this spell.

The inferi and the majority of the Death Eaters that were still in the fight, however, lacked the Dark Lord's ability to become intangible and so they were hit with **Ragnarök**'s full power. The masked wizards were rendered unconscious by the spell's blast. As for the walking dead... Unfortunately, because they weren't alive, the Belkan magic wasn't able to knock them out; it only knocked them down, and after a few seconds the undead began getting back on their feet, ready to continue their attack on the forces of the Light.

Grumbling some curse under her breath as she landed back onto the street floor, Reinforce initiated her next attack against the zombies. Flaring her magic, the silver-haired Lady summoned numerous arrays of Belkan runes on the ground and the building walls. Then, she tapped the ground with the butt of her battle staff, causing hundreds of spiked chains to erupt from the runic arrays and wrap themselves around the inferi. Then, Reinforce manipulated the chains into shortening, which, effectively tore the walking dead apart limb by limb. And whatever magic that kept them able to move and attack, just couldn't deal with something like this... The undead horde was no more.

This feat didn't go unnoticed by either side of the battle. And while the aurors were rejoicing that the army straight out of nightmare was no more, the Dark Lord found himself to be practically the last man standing: only a couple of 'lucky' Death Eaters remained in the fight, and they were too busy surviving against the attacks of the Potter's wenches to do anything else. No, Voldemort thought, this was not how the things were supposed to be, and he fully intended to rectify the situation...

Distracting his nemesis with a barrage of curses, the snake-faced man pulled a cheap-looking medallion out of his robes and threw it towards the auror positions. A moment later, a thirty feet tall giant clad in a heavy plate armor that was covered in protective runes got portkey'ed into the Diagon Alley. Wasting no time, the giant – a male one, judging by the beard – swing his spiked mace, sending the majority of the wizards in crimson robes flying into the building across the alley like rag dolls. The rest of the aurors were too stunned by this to either fight or flee; instead they just stood there, gaping at the giant dumbly.

Reinforce, however, wasn't stupefied by that _monster_'s appearance and quickly drew its attention to herself by raining a large number of relatively weak magical bullets upon him. And the giant, while definitely not a very bright being, still knew that he should deal with those trying to fight it first. So, approaching the silver-haired Lady, the giant raised his huge mace above his head. Then, he brought his massive weapon down upon the puny 'human', eager to see her become nothing more than a bloody smear on the ground.

This attack was so powerful that Dumbledore and what was left from the auror forces involuntary closed their eyes or just looked away. And they all definitely got scared that the silver-haired beauty might be no more... A few moments later, however, it became clear that the Lady of the Blessed Wind wasn't going down this easily: having surrounded herself with a mana cloak, she had managed to block the giant's mace with her battle staff, the Schwertkreuz.

The giant stared down dumbly, not understanding why this puny human wasn't killed by his strike. And, he wasn't the only one who got surprised by this. The wizards of Light too were astounded by the strength Reinforce was displaying... Reinforce herself, meanwhile, had her mind addicted to the battle and she wasn't about to waste an opportunity the giant's surprise had presented her with. Removing her left hand from the staff, she pointed her palm at the giant's head. A moment later a magic circle – that, for once, actually was a circle – appeared under her feet. At the same time a ball of concentrated mana began manifesting before her palm.

"**Divine Buster!**" The Lady of the Blessed Wind called as a beam of incredible power exploded towards the giant's head. And its power was so great that neither the enchanted heavy armor nor the natural magic resistance of the giant could do anything about it... Knocked out by the overwhelming force, the oversized warrior of the Dark Lord collapsed onto the street, causing a small quake.

...Or maybe even not so small as it had every window glass within two city blocks rattling. This quake also left the last two Death Eaters still in the fight momentarily stunned – something that Fate and Hedwig didn't fail to capitalize on as the two of them swiftly knocked the masked bastards down with precise and powerful magical attacks.

* * *

Despite being quite busy fighting against the scar-headed brat, Voldemort wasn't unaware that his forces in the Alley had fallen. Without taking down any of the Potter's allies; Dumbledore and a few aurors too were still standing and ready to fight. ...The things definitely weren't going according to his plans. Yet, even though he was now the last man standing, the Dark Lord still believed that he could 'win' this battle – the prophecy said that if he killed the scar-headed brat, there will be no one left in the entire world, who can end him.

Alas, the Potter spawn was far harder to defeat than Voldemort thought he would be... That didn't matter, however: there was no way that that heathen with his bastard magic could triumph over him, who followed the noble path of a wizard!

Quickly rolling to the side to avoid yet another volley of those annoying magical bullets Potter loved to throw around so much, Voldemort initiated his counterattack. First, he distracted the brat with a poorly-aimed killing curse. This was followed by a charm creating a booming sound, which was overpowered to the point where it probably was loud enough to tear Potter's eardrums to shreds. Whether that actually happened or not, it did stupefy the scar-headed teen...

"**Avada Kedavra!**" Voldemort intoned pompously, believing that this curse will finally end Potter.

"**Shockkragen!**" A certain miniature white-haired girl called at the same time. And just before the Dark Lord's curse could leave his wand, electrified magical chains wrapped themselves tightly around his body, throwing his aim off and causing the killing curse to hit nothing but an empty air.

"Thank you, Hedwig." Harry said to his fay-like ally, while charging his next attack up... But his hopes that those chains would really pin Voldemort down were misplaced: the man's homunculus body was immune to pain, which turned the normally quite-incapacitating binding spell into little more than an annoyance. And so, once again turning into black smoke, the Dark Lord slipped out of the bindings.

However, instead of putting some distance between himself and his enemies and continuing to throw curses at them from afar, Voldemort flew straight towards his nemesis. And once he was right in front of the scar-headed brat, he dropped his intangibility and physically threw the green-eyed mage towards the ground. This move so unexpected that both that it left both the young Potter and his faithful unison device stupefied and unable to do anything... Meanwhile, pointing his wand at his nemesis's heart, Voldemort began his incantation:

"**Avada Keda**\- arghhh..." He wasn't allowed to finish, though; the interruption came the form of a golden magical blade that impaled him through his chest. A moment later the heir of Slytherin found himself crash-landing face first into the ground. Even worse, despite not leaving any physical wounds, the magical blade has messed his homunculus body up nastily: his movements became sluggish and imprecise, and his magic was suddenly acting up, making it impossible for him to apparate away or turn incorporeal...

"Losing touch, eh, Harry-kun?" A blond girl in a rather revealing 'armor' asked Potter while adjusting her grip on the handle of a huge sword the blade of which was made entirely out of golden magic.

"I might be, I might be... And, thanks for the save, Fate-chan." The Potter brat replied as he got back onto his feet. Then, he gathered his magic in preparation for casting some spell. "**Diamond Teeth!**" A moment later the darkness claimed Voldemort as numerous spike-like magical constructs exploded out of the ground and skewered him.

**~/ *** \ ~**

Having made sure that the Dark Lord indeed was done for and won't be causing any troubles any time soon, the four mages approached Dumbledore, who was helping the aurors sort this whole mess out.

"How's the situation, professor?" Harry asked.

"Thanks to you all, we've managed a victory today, but..." The aged warlock began. "Many good wizards and witches have lost their lives. The Department of the Magical Law Enforcement lost over a dozen aurors in this battle, and this is not something we can just shrug off." He said, nodding towards the bodies of the fallen that were currently laid in a disorderly row along the edge of the Alley. There was a very long pause, before he continued: "We're all lucky that Voldemort was the force that bound the Death Eaters and many dark creatures together into a single army of terror; otherwise, the current Ministry would have fallen regardless."

"I see..." Was all that the young Potter could say.

"Anyhow." Reinforce took up the word. "Your Dark Lord has been dealt with; we've blocked his magic and I've also placed him under a stasis spell. This should give you a couple of months to rebuild and mop up whichever his followers decide to keep fighting."

"That's good to hear." The Hogwarts headmaster replied. "I don't think we're ready to deal with him just yet." Indeed, Dumbledore thought, they weren't ready right now; two of the Voldemort's horcruxes were still out there somewhere, preventing him from being retired into the history books.

"...That said." The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind continued. "We've fulfilled our end of the deal now. We will be waiting for you to fulfill yours." The aged warlock nodded.

"We will find a way to free young Ms. Testarossa from the curse." He promised. "Just be a little patient, please; finding a way to break a curse, especially the one unlike anything we've ever seen before, takes a lot of time and work." Reinforce nodded understandingly: her 'experiences' with the corrupted Defense Program had shown her just how difficult dealing with the curses, especially the ones derived from the long-lost forms of magic, can be.

"Of course." The silver-haired beauty replied, before making a request: "Then, please, notify us, when the curse-breakers have found something."

"Meanwhile." Harry spoke. "Would it be alright for us to hand Voldemort in to the DMLE now and leave, professor? If there are any reports about the battle that we need to turn in, we'd rather it waits till at least tomorrow."

"I don't see a problem with that, Harry." Dumbledore replied. "I'll send you a note if the DMLE need anything from you." The green-eyed mage nodded.

"Thank you, professor." He said, while moving the unconscious Dark Lord to where the fresh group of aurors was dealing with the captured Death Eaters. And once they took Voldemort's body away from him, Harry had his magic circle manifest under his feet. "See you later, professor!.. **Dimensional Transfer!**" And in a small flash of light, the four mages were gone.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	34. Breaking the Curse

The thirty fourth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**doraemax**, **vampireharry the 2**, **davycrockett100**, **FateBurn**, **Penny is wise**, **ultima-owner**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, **god of all**, **Jostanos**, **kazikamikaze24**, **digiwriter1392**, **Rydralle**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**frankieu**, I doubt that Dumbledore and Bones will let anyone that can be bought anywhere close to where Voldemort will be kept.  
**roughstar333**, Voldemort wasn't intangible during his last attack against Harry. He can't use any other magic while intangible - and he did physically throw Harry towards the ground, a hard thing to do when you're intangible ;) . As for you comment about Fate from the previous chapter... can we settle on it being just chapter padding?  
**Impstar**, this is Alicia's arc, actually. And it's not quite over yet.  
**Jose19**, if you haven't noticed, Voldemort was _WINNING_ before Hedwig and Fate intervened.  
**The Ultimate Balance Chaos**, Harry's Lost Logia merely makes it impossible him to run out of mana in the middle of the fight. Otherwise, it has no impact on his combat abilities. He doesn't gain any additional tactical or spell knowledge from it, and it doesn't let him channel more mana than he would have been able to otherwise... And, regardless, while Harry is not as strong as the Aces would eventually be or Reinforce already is, he is still much much stronger than you average grunts. I'd say, he's as strong as pre-FORCE Subaru.  
**Guest**, I'm actually hoping to avoid major time skips. And, right now, it's still around three and half to four years before that airport fire.

*** AN**: Alicia is now finally free from that awful curse!

Anyhow, at present, this arc has two more chapters planned for it. Afterwards... I have a few ideas, but nothing that can be converted into a solid plot yet. Thus, unless a sudden bout of inspiration happens, this story will go on a hiatus sometime this next January. And, even though I don't particularly like this idea, I might even do a major timeskip - probably even straight to the events of the first part of StrikerS manga. Though, I do hope that it won't be necessary and the story will continue without any timeskips.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells** / **devices speaking**"  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XXXIV: ****Breaking the Curse  
**

One of the first things Harry did the next morning was contacting Lindy Harlaown to report her the current situation. Beyond that, he also intended to do some catching up with his 'family' – Hayate-chan, Yuki-chan and, of course, little Lutecia... But that would have to wait until he was done discussing the more important matters with the teal-haired Dimensional Navy fleet commander.

"Good evening, admiral." He greeted, accounting for the time difference between London and Uminari city. His converser shook her head lightly.

"Hello, Harry-kun, and 'Lindy-san' would be fine. I'm on a leave right now." She greeted back.

"We've made some further progress with Alicia's situation." The green-eyed mage reported. "We now only need to wait for the local magicals to find a way to break that curse." Mrs. Harlaown nodded.

"That's nice to hear, Harry-kun." She said, before asking: "Any idea when that will happen?" The young investigator shook his head.

"No idea. Though, of course, we all do hope that it will be soon." He replied. There was a short pause, before he continued: "How are the things on your end? I hope Lu-chan doesn't cause you too much trouble?" Lindy let out a small laugh.

"Actually, no. Hayate-chan is doing a great job mothering her." The teal-haired rear admiral replied. "It might be a little disconcerting for me to see someone so young being so mature, though... Regardless, Hayate-chan will make a great mother one day." The one who got flushed the most by this comment, probably unsurprisingly, was Reinforce. Harry let out a chuckle.

"And ain't she already,.. right, Yuki-chan?" He asked, addressing the ice-wielding fairy-like girl that was Hayate's (new) unison device, causing her to blush just as bright as her silver-haired 'mother' did moments ago. "Anyway." The green-eyed mage continued. "Are Hayate-chan and Lulu-chan around?"

"They are playing in the snow in the backyard right now." Lindy replied. "Want me to call them here?"

"Nah." He replied. "Let them have their fun. Just tell them that I called when they return." The teal-haired rear admiral nodded.

"Of course, Harry-kun." She said. "And good luck to you. Let's hope that your... err... acquaintances will be able to find the way to break Alicia's curse soon." The young investigator nodded. "Well, talk to you later, Harry-kun." Mrs. Harlaown said. Telling her good bye, the green-eyed Potter ended the call.

Letting out a sigh, he looked around the room. Reinforce has returned to watching the news on TV, and he could see Fate-chan watching over her sister in the side room... It looked like there was little for them to do but wait for the curse-breakers to make a breakthrough now that they've fulfilled their end of the deal with the wizards...

'_Oh well..._' Harry thought as he summoned a holographic display with his device's admin console – he had been putting off upgrading Phoenix Claw's software updates for long enough; now seemed to be a good time to finally install those updates... Letting out another sigh, he went to work on modernizing his device's programs...

**~/ *** \~**

Early in the morning two days later an old from Dumbledore arrived with a note. And, according to this note, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the person of its director, madam Amelia Bones, would like to debrief them about the events of the battle of the Diagon Alley around noon that day. Also, attached to this note there was an official paper from the Chief Warlock that – supposedly – would allow the four mages to get past the security desk in the Ministry's atrium without a problem. Or, at least, with much less problem: four magic users without wands would still be considered suspicious by the wizards...

"Do you think they will just let us in because of this slip of a parchment?" Hedwig asked, recalling how much it took Dumbledore to get just Harry past the security. Not that the security officer would be able to stop them if they tired to force their way in, but...

"I sure hope so." The green-eyed mage replied. "It would be quite bad if we miss our meeting with the DMLE Director because of the guard stubbornness." A moment later, he continued: "For now, though, I think we should finish preparing the information we will give to madam Bones at the debrief." There was a round of nods of agreement: while most of the relevant data has already been compiled over the previous days, some finishing touches were still needed here and there.

* * *

With everything put in order by half past eleven, the four mages donned their TSAB uniforms and Harry teleported them all to the 'public' entrance of the British Ministry for Magic... The fact that the said entrance looked just like a shabby phone booth in the London back alleys didn't amuse Fate-chan or Reinforce any. Sure, neither of them expected the crystal spires like the ones housing the Bureau's central offices, but this...

A ride in a dirty and incommodious box later, the four of them finally arrived to the Ministry's atrium, which did possess the splendor one would expect from it. Not that they were given much time to study this place as a group of aurors led by Rufus Scrimgeour himself approached them a few moments later.

"You're here, good." The lion-like man said as he offered Harry a handshake. "Director Bones is waiting for you." The green-eyed teen nodded.

"We better not keep her waiting, then." He said. "Lead the way."

"Of course." Scrimgeour replied. "Alright, follow us." He said then, before turning around and heading for the elevators at the end of the atrium, the rest of the group following him a few steps behind... And thanks to this entourage, Harry and co were allowed to bypass the security checkpoint without a problem; the officer there didn't spare them more than just a single glance.

An elevator ride later, the group found themselves on the Ministry's second level, standing right in front of heavy oak doors that led into the DMLE offices. Wasting no time, Scrimgeour pushed these doors open and led the group past a whole bunch of cubicles towards the department's conference hall. Inside, sitting at the head of the large table, was madam Bones.

"Good morning." She greeted, once Harry and his companions were seated. "And thank you for agreeing to answer our questions regarding the events of the battle of the Diagon Alley." Making a short pause, she continued: "Shall we begin?" The green-eyed investigator nodded in response. And so the debriefing began...

**~/ *** \~**

Another two days later another message from Dumbledore arrived, informing the Bureau mages that the curse-breakers might have found a way to free Alicia from her curse and were ready to try it whenever they were allowed to. And, regardless of the note making it quite clear that there were no guarantees that whatever method the curse-breakers had come up with will work, these news still raised everyone's spirit. This was especially true for Fate-chan: the blonde was effervescing with joy at the thought that her sister's curse will soon be no more.

Too bad, their only way of communicating with Dumbledore was the owl post... And, given how slow it was, it extremely unlikely that their response will reach the aged warlock until late in the evening. Thus, the earliest time the curse-breakers' visit could be scheduled for was the next morning. Now, normally such delay wouldn't matter much for Harry and co, but right now, they were running out of time. Their official leaves were quickly coming to an end, and should they not report back on time, the Bureau will start looking for them. And should they get caught in the act of breaking the non-interference laws... It would not be pretty...

When the next morning finally came, the young Potter was very pleased that Dumbledore and the curse-breakers – three goblins and a single human, who was almost definitely a Weasley – were already waiting for him at the meeting spot they had... agreed on. Once the greetings were exchanged, Harry led the group into a nearby back alley where magic wouldn't be accidentally seen by some muggle. Then, he promptly teleported everyone to the apartment that the and his friends had been using as their base of operations for the past few days.

"Alright." Fate-chan said once she and Reinforce and Hedwig had greeted the guests. "You said, you have found a way to break the curse. What's it?" The young Mr. Weasley shook his head.

"Actually, that would be not entirely correct." He replied. "Given your own experiences with the curse, we still haven't found any weaknesses that would allow us to break it. That said, transplanting it into another host appears to be possible." He said, nodding towards a small cage with a single rat in it that a goblin curse-breaker next to him had in his hands. And almost as if it knew what the Fates had in store for it, the little rodent frantically tried to claw its way to freedom.

"How certain are you that this will work? Transplanting the curse, I mean." Reinforce asked then.

"We aren't really sure, but I'd say that his is more likely to work than not." The goblin in charge of the curse-breaker team, Ironclaw, replied. "But the chances of failure are still pretty high. We also can't guaranty that there will be no consequences, should this attempt to remove the curse fail." His words were followed by a rather lengthy silence.

"So, Fate-chan." Harry spoke, breaking this silence. "Do you think this is worth trying? Or are we going to wait for a more sure-fire method of dealing with Alicia's curse to be discovered?" The young blonde though about it for a few moments, before replying:

"Let's do it now." She said.

"Of course." Ironclaw replied with a nod. "We shall begin the preparations then." After a small pause, he added: "This procedure is not the easiest one, though. To increase the chances of success, it would be the best if you remove as many other spells laid on the girl as possible. Also, given the unknown and rather unpredictable nature of the curse we will be dealing with, I'd like to ask for your assistance, should some ...unexpected things happen."

"We will be there." Reinforce replied a moment later.

"Let's get started then?" Mr. William Weasley 'asked' as the curse-breakers and Reinforce and Fate-chan headed into the room where Alicia was held.

* * *

Almost three quarters of an hour later, once the curse-breakers had the necessary for the procedure runic arrays drawn, Harry, Hedwig and Dumbledore joined them in 'Alicia's' room... And even though he had no understanding of how wizarding runic magic worked, the green-eyed investigator could tell that curse transfer indeed was not a simple ritual: the runic array it required was enormous!

"Are you ready to begin?" The young mage asked.

"Almost." Ironclaw replied. Then, turning his attention to the silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind, he requested: "Could you please lift the stasis, Ms. Yagami? You can keep the magic inhibitors active; I don't think they will have any negative impact on the curse's transfer." Nodding, Reinforce willed the stasis spell around Alicia to dissipate. Wasting no time, Ironclaw then activated the runic array.

For a few moments nothing was happening. Then, dark blood-red lines began appearing on Alicia's skin. Remembering this as the sign of the curse gaining power over its host, the Bureau mages were starting to panic. Thankfully, it appeared that the situation was under control: the spell the goblins had crafted with the runic array was working and it was slowly but surely pulling the miasmal magic of the Al-Hazardian curse out of Alicia's body.

After a minute of this power struggle, though, the curse's adaptive ability shook up, causing a web made from hundreds upon hundred of small tendrils to bloom across the sleeping blonde's skin. This 'upgrade' firmly anchored the curse in place and actually allowed it to begin overpowering the wizarding ritual trying to extract if from its current host.

"Damn it!" William cursed loudly. "Professor,.. help us!.." He turned to Dumbledore "We need... more power... to fight... this thing!" The aged warlock nodded and, kneeling next to the red-haired young man, he touched one of the runes with his wand. A moment later, the whole array flashed with power, and the Al-Hazardian curse once again was losing ground.

This victory lasted for only about fifteen seconds, though. Then, the curse adapted to the increased power of the ritual. By sprouting more of those tendrils to anchor itself to its host – there now were so many of them that barely any of Alicia's skin was visible!

"Is there anything we can do to help you?" Harry asked as he watched two wizards and three goblins fight a losing battle against the might of ancient Al-Hazardian magic. "If all that you need is magical energy, than we can easily give it to you." After a few long moments of silence, Ironclaw gave the young mage a reply:

"Yes, adding more magic to the runic array would increase the ritual's power." The goblin said. "But... I'm not sure that will be enough." The green-eyed Potter shook his head:

"This battle isn't lost yet. We have to try this." There was another small pause, before Ironclaw nodded.

"Of course... You should touch that rune and will your magic into it." He said, while nodding towards a large Ingwaz rune on the edge of the array.

"Understood." The green-eyed mage replied. Then, turning his attention to his fairy-like friend, he called: "Hedwig, unison in!" His miniature companion nodded, before turning herself into a small ball of light. She then merged into Harry's body, causing his raven hair become gray while his eyes turned a much lighter shade of green. "Reinforce, Fate-chan." He said then, already moving to the spot Ironclaw has pointed him to. "Do help me."

"Aye." The silver-haired Lady of the Blessed Wind replied as she moved to stand behind him. A moment later young Ms. Testarossa-Harlaown silently joined her there. The two beauties then placed their hands on his shoulders while sending their mana forth through this connection. This, added to the already impressive amounts of magical energy that Harry and Hedwig were drawing from the 'Heart of the Stars' Lost Logia, caused a whitish sheen of ethereal energy to surround the young investigator's body.

Wasting no time, the green-eyed Potter placed his hand on the Ingwaz rune and pushed all the mana coursing through his body into the runic array before him. Immediately, the array lit up like a Christmas garland, causing the wizards and goblins alike to let out startled cries of surprise – they surely haven't expected the mages to possess this much raw magical power. And, indeed, the newly-empowered ritual was once again pulling the Al-Hazardian curse out of Alicia's body. Yet, it wasn't doing it fast enough: in a few seconds the curse would adapt and...

"We need more power!" The currently-gray-haired teen called, addressing Reinforce. "Give it all that you have." He asked.

"Harry, you know that..." The avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky began.

"Now." He insisted. Reinforce glared at the back of his head for a few moments, before giving in.

"Very well." She said while as she began pushing as much of her magical power in her partner as she herself could access. Immediately, Harry found himself pressed down to the floor like someone suddenly quadrupled the gravity for him; meanwhile, the ethereal glow that previously surrounded his body turned into something that could only be described as a raging bonfire. And, judging by the stifled cry of pain the green-eyed teen let out, this all was causing him quite a discomfort.

He didn't let it distract him from his 'mission', though. With a mighty thought, he directed the magical power currently poured into his body through his outstretched hand and into the runic array onto the floor, causing it to glow blindingly-bright; at the same time the 'bonfire' of magic around him became noticeably weaker.

With this additional power available to it, the runic array finally began to truly overpower the Al-Hazardian curse as more and more of its miasmal blood-red magic was pulled out of Alicia's body. The curse, of course, was fighting against this, but, thankfully, none of its attempts to return to its host were anything more than fleeting successes...

After what felt like an eternity, the alien magic couldn't fight against the ritual any more and finally separated from its host. For the next few moments, the shapeless and ever-changing blob of miasma that the curse was remained suspended in the mid-air; then the ritual's magic roughly shoved it into its new host: some unfortunate magical rat. And since the poor critter's will wasn't anywhere as strong as that of a human, the Al-Hazardian magic took over its tiny body in a blink of a eye...

Meanwhile, seeing as the curse-transfer ritual was an apparent success, the wizards, goblins and mages alike stopped channeling their magical power into the ritual's runic array. Or, in cases of Fate-chan and Reinforce, into Harry. Hedwig also ended her unison with him... With all the pressure now taken off him, the young Potter tried to stand up; only his body didn't quite cooperate with him. He would have actually fallen onto the floor, had Reinforce not caught him by the back of his sweater.

"What's with him? Is he alright?" William asked, drawing everyone's attention to the green-eyed teen. Indeed, Harry wasn't looking well right now. He looked tired and pale and unsteady on his feet; his hands – upper arms and shoulders too, most likely – had numerous first and second degree burns; and in addition to all that, it looked like he was suffering several minor internal bleedings as well.

"This is what happens when someone tries to work with way more mana than their body can actually handle." The Lady of the Blessed Wind replied, though it sounding more like she was chastising Harry instead. "And while using magic to heal this damage would be counter-productive..." She continued. "He should be mostly fine after a few days of rest."

"Uhm..." Fate-chan interrupted rather meekly. "What about Alicia?.. Please, make sure that she's alright." Reinforce nodded, before casting a spell no one in the room could recognize to examine the unconscious blonde. After a dozen of seconds, she got the results.

"I can still detect some fragments of the curse within Alicia-chan there." The silver-haired beauty said. "But, according to the readings I'm getting, these fragments don't possess the logic necessary either to restore the curse to its original state, or to directly affect Alicia's behavior." After a small pause she continued: "And while I can't be completely certain about it, I don't think that these remnants of the curse will cause us trouble. We should be able to deal with them on our own at our leisure..." Another small pause later, she delivered her conclusion: "All in all, I'll say that this ritual was a success."

"That's good!.." Harry breathed out weakly. Then, finally giving in to his body's demands, he allowed himself to slip into the blissful void of unconsciousness... But before the people around him could freak out about this, their attention was drawn away from him by Mr. Weasley:

"What the heck is going on?" The red-haired wizard asked, pointing to the cage where the rat they used as the replacement host for the curse was supposed to be. Instead of the little rodent, however, the cage now contained a disgusting shapeless blob of hairless tumorous flesh that was crisscrossed by dark-red lines and oozed blood... It looked like the curse was trying to change its new host to better suit its programmed needs; whether it was succeeding in this task or not wasn't clear.

"I don't think I want to know." Fate-chan replied. "This curse is too dangerous; we need to destroy it before it tries anything." Nodding, the elderly warlock pointed his wand at the cage and levitated it into the air. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he set the fleshy thing that the rat got turned into on fire. This purple magical fire was burning extremely hot, yet it still had troubles with incinerating the magically-mutated flesh. Eventually, though, Dumbledore's fire won and soon nothing but ashes remained from the curse-infected rodent...

* * *

"So... If that's not a secret, what do you plan to do next?" Dumbledore asked Reinforce as the two of them plus Arf in her human-oid form sat in the living room. It was pretty much just them right now: the curse-breakers have left already; Hedwig was keeping an eye on her sleeping _papa_ in the bedrooms; and Fate-chan was watching over her sister, probably to keep herself assured that this nightmare with the curse was finally over.

"Well..." The Lady of the Blessed Wind replied. "Our official leaves are almost over, so we need to go back home soon... We shall depart from here once Harry gets a little better, maybe even as soon as tomorrow's afternoon."

"I see..." The Hogwarts headmaster said. "Well, good luck, then. And thank you for helping us out of this crisis: I'm not sure we could have made it through this war without your assistance." And that was the truth: when Harry and his friends showed up, Voldemort and his troops were slowly but surely destroying the Light forces. A few more months, and the current Ministry would have fallen.

"And we thank you for what you did for us." Reinforce replied. "Without your curse-breakers, I'm not sure we would have been able to save Alicia. That curse was some really nasty piece of magic." Dumbledore couldn't help but agree with that. "Also." The silver-haired beauty continued: "Those phoenix tears you gave us, Harry says that they will save our other friends."

"Glad to hear that." The aged warlock replied. He was about to say something else, but stopped as his eyes landed on the clock hanging on the living room's wall. "Oh my!" He exclaimed. "It looks like I've sat late." Noticing the slight confusion on the Reinforce's face, he elaborated: "As the Chief Warlock, it is my duty to oversee Wizengamot assemblies. And the one today will start in just twenty minutes." The avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky nodded.

"Then let us not delay you any more." She said as she stood up and the two of them began walking towards the apartment's anteroom. "And, once again, thank you for removing that curse..."

**~/ *** several days later *** \~**

"What's the deal about this thing anyway?" Hermione's roommate asked, scaring the wits out of the bushy-haired witch. "You keep staring at it as if it's something really precious. It's just a muggle trifle; it can't be useful for anything, can it?" The brunette sent a glare at the other girl: while the two of them were coexisting rather peacefully, Clare reminded her too much of the certain few Slytherin girls – a stuck-up pure-blood girl who chose to follow a rich and politically-powerful boy rather than to find her own way in life – for a real friendship to happen between them.

"Whether useful or not, this is probably the last memento I have of my ...friend." Hermione replied as she picked the magically-repaired DVD disk from her table. Letting out another sigh, she confided: "We didn't exactly part our ways on the best terms, and then I had to fuck it all up even worse..."

"Then forget about him and find yourself someone who is more useful than your disappeared 'friend'." Clare said. The bushy-haired witch said nothing in response, but her glare told the other girl exactly where she should shove her 'suggestions' in. Seemingly not at all phased by this glare, Clare continued: "Well, whatever. If you want hardships in your life, than keep sticking to useless remnants of the past."

"I will decide how I live my life myself." Hermione replied hotly.

"And that is why you write the letters to the people that aren't real." The girl said, obviously referring to the letter Hermione sent a few days ago – that letter got returned to her two days later with a stamp of British Owl Mail Services saying that the recipient of the letter didn't exist.

"You don't have to believe me, but I know that _he_ had been there just a few days ago, I've performed the rituals to confirm that myself!" The brunette witch shot back. After a rather lengthy pause, she let out yet another sigh. "All I wanted to was to apologize,.. Oh, Hell, it's not like you care that I suffer from the rash mistakes I've made in the past..."

"I care that your depression turns this room as gloomy as an abandoned cemetery." Clare replied, annoyed by her her roommate's unwillingness to let her past be. "I told you once and again that you should move on and find yourself some nice rich man..." Seeing the glare Hermione was giving her, she continued: "Or don't. Continue to wallow in your self-pity; I don't care." Turning around on her heels, she headed out of the room. Pausing in the doorway, she added: "I'll be hanging around Antonius if something really important requires me." And with those words, she left.

Letting out a growl under her breath – sometimes she really hated Clare – Hermione returned the disk onto its proper place on her bedside table. With yet another sigh, she collapsed onto her bed and hugged a plump pillow to her chest.

"Harry... Why are you avoiding me now? I just wanted to say that I'm sorry... That I grew up and don't hold a grudge against you anymore... Please... Don't run from me, please!.." Alas, she knew that her pleadings would never reach Harry's ears. And it only made her feel worse; like she had chased her last friend away... Dammit! What had she done so wrong to make the Life hate her so much?.. Of course, silence was her only answer.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	35. Roads to Recoveries

The thirty fifth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**roughstar333**, no, that was JUST an ordinary RAT.  
**davycrockett100**, **FateBurn**, **Impstar**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **ultima-owner**, **Jostanos**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Penny is wise**, **Guest**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**SonatiShinonome**, hey! CW-AEC00X "Fortress" is cool! And I absolutely love Hayate's looks in FORCE. That said, the mangaka did go overboard with a few things that ultimately led to 'indefinite hiatus' of the series.  
**The Ultimate Balance Chaos**, he doesn't "want" immediate power - though he did feel inadequate next to the Wolkenritter or the Aces during the 'Book of the Darkness' incident. If, however, you wanted to write "won't", then, well, power doesn't appear out of nothing. Also, at this point Harry will probably beat Chrono (AAA-rank aerial mage, enforcer) in a straight fight.  
**Joshua The Evil Guy**, no, the next arc definitely won't be a direct setup for StrikerS - those are like over 7 years away right now. I might do a (short) arc for Yuuno next, actually. With Alicia thrown into the mix, even if she just got her own huge one. Though, at the moment, I don't have enough ideas even for one chapter there... Another possibility is a princesses arc centered around the older girls from Vivid cast. Some of the events from Sieg's flashback should be happening soon. After that, we have the airport incident and the relics from StrikerS manga... Also, even if Hermione returns to the story as a more permanent character of the story, she isn't likely to replace Reinforce as Harry's partner.  
**Paxloria**, yes, she repaired and watched it after she cooled down a bit. But Harry wasn't on the Earth when she did watch his message.

*** AN**: Dammit, this chapter was really hard to write... And I'm still lacking the ideas for the next arc's plot...

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells**"  
「_Devices speaking_」  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XXXV: ****Roads to Recoveries  
**

It was the inky-blackness of a cool winter night that first greeted Harry and co as Reinforce teleported them to the Yagami residence's backyard. And, they immediately noticed that, despite such a late hour, the lights in the living room were still on. Apparently, someone was waiting up for them... And, indeed, just as they entered the house, they saw rather sleepy Mrs. Harlaown standing the living room's doorway with a cup of coffee in her hands.

"Welcome back!" She greeted them with a stifled yawn. "Also, didn't you say that you had the curse broken?" She asked a few moments later, rather surprised to see the older Testarossa girl still deep asleep in the recovery pod.

"We did. The curse is indeed no more." Fate-chan confirmed. "But we've agreed that it would really be better if nee-chan wakes up in a place she's at least somewhat familiar with. So,.." As she trailed off, Lindy nodded, understanding the reasoning behind this decision. Waking up after she specifically asked to be, well, put down for the safety of others would be stressful enough for Alicia as it is; no need to make it worse by having it happen in some random apartment on a world she has never been to.

"I see..." The teal-haired rear admiral breathed out. Then, she turned her attention to Harry, who was doing his best to pretend that he was alright and suffered no injuries for his stunt during the removal of Alicia's curse. Too bad for him, it looked like there was no way for him to fool Lindy-san's keen eyes. "What happened to you, Harry-kun?" She asked next.

"_Someone_ had a bright idea to turn himself into a conduit for our combined full magical might, mine included." The silver-haired beauty that was avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky replied, while looking pointedly at her not-quite-boyfriend.

"If I didn't do that, we wouldn't have been able to beat the curse." The young Potter pointed out. And that was something no one could really argue against: it was extremely unlikely that another way of dealing with that troublesome Al-Hazardian magic would be found before the official leaves of the Bureau mages ended. Still, was this enough for him to avoid another reprimand? Probably not.

"Well..." Lindy began with a heavy sigh. "It has already happened, so there is nothing we can really do about it now." She noted. A moment later, she continued: "Still, Harry, please, don't do anything heedless like that ever again, okay?" The green-eyed mage nodded: while he couldn't say he regretted making that decision, his suffering right now was enough of a lesson for him to be very mindful of his limits in the future.

"As long as there are no lives at stake." He promised halfheartedly.

"O-o-okay" Mrs. Harlaown didn't appear to be really satisfied with that, but decided against pushing the issue. Instead, she shifted her attention back to the coffin-like recovery pod hovering next to the fivesome: "Anyway, how are you going to approach waking Alicia-chan up, Fate-chan?" She asked her adopted daughter. The said blonde was silent for a moment, before giving the answer:

"Our plan was to bring nee-chan back to our place." She said, referring to the apartment Lindy had bought in the city during the 'Book of Darkness' incident. "Then we'd lift the stasis spell and let her regain consciousness naturally."

"And I shall be where my mistress is." Arf added, moving closer to her girl in question.

"I wanted to spend the morning with Lu-chan and Hayate-chan." Harry spoke next. "After that I see no reason not to help Fate-chan keep an eye on Alicia-chan... If she's not up by then, that is."

"And what about you, Reinforce?" Lindy asked next.

"I will be with my master." The Lady of the Blessed Wind replied simply. "But, if for whatever reason you need my help, don't be shy and ring me up." She added after a moment.

"I see..." Mrs. Harlaown said with a nod, before taking a sip from her cup of coffee. "Say, Fate-chan, would you like to help you with Alicia-chan this morning?" She asked her (adopted) daughter next.

"If that's okay with you, mom." The said girl replied.

"Of course." The teal-haired lady replied. "Just let me finish my coffee and I'm at your disposal." After a brief pause, she added: "Well, I also need put something warmer on – it's cold outside, isn't it?" And with those words she walked away towards the kitchen. Meanwhile, Harry opened his bag and rummaged through it, eventually withdrawing a vial of phoenix tears and a syringe from it. He then placed those items into a pocket of his jacket.

"Mhm?" Fate 'asked' him.

"I'll need to give Alicia-chan an injection when we lift the stasis from her." He explained. "This should help her with her mana poisoning... It might not be enough to heal her completely, but it will definitely ease her condition." The blond enforcer in training nodded. Still, she couldn't help but ask:

"But, are you sure you don't want to use this on yourself, Harry-kun? You were hurt pretty badly." She asked then. The green-eyed teen shook his head in response:

"I'll be fine." He reassured. "Just a couple of weeks without magically exerting myself, and I should be as good as new." Indeed, Reinforce had confirmed earlier that day that no matter how bad the aftermath of his stunt looked, his injures weren't actually incurable. Now, Alicia's condition, on the other hand...

The group fell quiet and the next couple of minutes was spent in silence. Then, Lindy – now wearing a woolen sweater over her shirt and different, much warmer, pants – rejoined them.

"Alright." The teal-haired rear admiral said. "I'm ready. Let's go!"

* * *

Moving Alicia-chan back to the Harlaown apartment went without a problem, as did finally removing the stasis spell from her and giving her a shot of phoenix tears. With that out of the way and Lindy-san taking the first shift of keeping an eye out for the older blonde's awakening, Harry, Hedwig and Reinforce were able to return back to the Yagami residence a couple of hours before the dawn.

The golden-eyed owl-girl soon excused herself and disappeared towards the bedrooms to get some well-deserved rest, leaving her 'parents', who then retired to the kitchen for some tea, as the only ones awake in the house at this time...

As skies began to dust with greens forestalling the sunrise, the young Potter suddenly got an idea:

"Say, Rein-chan." He said, breaking the silence. "Shall we make a surprise for Hayate-chan?" The silver-haired beauty raised her eyebrow questioningly.

"What do you have in mind, Harry-kun?" She asked. Rising out of his chair, the green-eyed teen leaned over the table and began whispering his plan to his pretty partner. "I see." Reinforce said once he finished sharing his ideas. "Let's do it." She proclaimed then with a smile blossoming on her lips.

Almost an hour later, when still-sleepy Hayate descended to the kitchen, she was greeted by a hot breakfast waiting for her on the table and Reinforce busying around in an apron...

* * *

The morning hours flew by in a blink of an eye for Harry as he played with little Lutecia – this little ball of sunshine really did miss her _papa_ – while he and Reinforce were catching up with Hayate-chan. And before he knew it, it was was lunch time already. And since Fate-chan hasn't contacted him yet, it meant that Alicia was still asleep and it was soon his turn to keep an eye on her, just as he had promised. And Harry wasn't about to break his word. Thus, once they've had their lunch, the young Potter once again left Lu-chan in Hayate-chan's capable hands while he himself headed to the Harlaowns' place.

The walk didn't take long and soon enough he found himself in front of the apartment's door. Suddenly feeling nervous for a reason that eluded him, the green-eyed teen took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. Almost immediately he heard approaching footsteps and a few moments later Lindy-san opened the door and invited him in.

"How's Alicia?" Harry asked once the greetings were exchanged.

"Still sleeping." Mrs. Harlaown replied. There was a small pause, before she added: "But, I think, she'll regain consciousness before midnight."

"I see..." He said with as he finished removing his outerwear. "Then let me take over the watch." And upon Lindy's nod, he headed to the bedroom Alicia was in. He wasn't at all surprised to find out that her sister was also there, diligently keeping an eye on her. Well, as diligently as someone on their last legs could: enforcer trainee she might be, Fate was still just a girl barely into her teens; going two days without sleep wasn't easy for her.

"You should get some rest, Fate-chan. I'll wake you up if something happens." Harry offered. His response came in the form of an inarticulate groan of disagreement. "C'mon, Fate-chan." He pressed. "Rest a little, I promise you won't miss Alicia-chan waking up." With a sigh, the blonde gave in.

"You'll really wake me up?" She asked.

"Bardiche's with you, right?" He asked back.

「_I am._」 The intelligent device replied in its usual baritone. 「_Contact me and I shall wake sir up._」It offered, causing its master to sigh in apparent desperation: even after all these years Fate-chan still had no success in getting her device to use gender-correct addresses in its speech.

"Alright." The blonde finally gave in, stifling a treacherous yawn. Rising out of her chair at the head of Alicia's bed, she added: "I'll be in the living room if you need me." Once Fate-chan left the room, Harry took a set in 'her' chair and laid a couple of rather-simple spells to monitor Alicia's state: now his magic will alert him about the girl waking up. Truth to be said, he was actually a bit surprised that neither Fate-chan herself nor Lindy-san had thought about this.

Anyhow, with his spells set to keep an eye on Alicia, the green-eyed Potter now needed to occupy himself with something for the next few hours. And, for once, he decided against doing something related to his work for the Bureau or even keeping 'Phoenix Claw' in the top shape. Instead, he just picked a random novel from the collection he had on his device and began reading...

* * *

It was close to the dinner time when Harry's monitoring spells alerted him that Alicia was apparently showing the signs of regaining consciousness. Not wasting any time, he alerted Fate-chan about this. Then, deciding that he didn't need them anymore, he dispelled his monitoring spells...

For the next minute nothing really happened. Then, the room's door opened slightly and the young Ms. Testarossa quietly slipped inside. And while she appeared to be a little bit sleepy, she certainly looked much more invigorated than before.

"Feeling better?" He asked. The blonde remained silent for a few moments, before giving him a nod.

"Yeah, much." She admitted. "Thanks." Then she turned her attention to her sister, who, at the first glance, was still soundly asleep. "Are you sure she is waking up?"

"I can't be completely sure about that, but it seems to be the case..." He replied as he rose out of the chair he had been sitting in until now and offered it to his lightning-wielding friend. Nodding him a 'thank you', she sat down, her eyes locked on her sister's form.

"Then we wait." She said. And so they waited... After what felt like an hour to them, but in really wasn't even full ten minutes, Alicia suddenly sat up on the bed, her eyes wide open, as if she awakened from some sort of a terrible nightmare. Fate-chan's immediate reaction was to try to mother her, but Harry's hand on her shoulder kept her firmly in place.

"_She's in shock. Let her take in the world at her own pace._" He communicated telepathically. Fate sent him an annoyed glare in response, yet deep down she had to admit that he was probably right... Meanwhile, Alicia seemed to finally start catching up with reality. Or...

"Am I... in heaven?" She asked weakly.

"Not quite." Harry replied, drawing her attention. And as she turned towards his voice, she froze.

"F-Fate-chan, w-why?.." Alicia stammered as she tired to back away from her sister, afraid that she can turn into a monster and start attacking her at any moment. "Why? I am a d-danger to you! I don't want-..." She was stopped by Fate – who suddenly was right by her side – enveloping her in a hug.

"Shh." The younger blond whispered. "Everything's alright now, nee-chan. We've taken care of your curse; it's no more, it won't be controlling you ever again."

"We've also tried to cure your mana poisoning." Harry added, stunning Alicia into shocked silence even further. She just couldn't come up with any words right now.

"D-did you r-really?.." She managed finally. The young Potter merely nodded in response, while Fate-chan snuggled closer against her. "T-Thank you! I... I... I just don't... don't know w-what-..."

"Shh... It's okay." Her sister reassured her as she tightened her embrace. "You're with us, and that's all that matters."

**~/ *** \~**

Since Reinforce lacked the medical knowledge necessary to properly evaluate Alicia's physical condition, it was decided that the group will be making a stop at the TSAB Headquarters' hospital, before returning to Mid-Childa. It was also a chance for everyone to pay Nanoha-chan a visit. Megane Alpine as well, in case of Harry and little Lutecia. And since Lindy-san held the rank of a rear admiral, the Bureau was actually providing a shuttle to fly everyone from the non-administered world #97 to the headquarters...

The flight itself wasn't anything special, though it did take a bit longer than expected as they had to circle around a large storm in the Dimension Space that decided to pop into existence up right on their original course... And when the craft finally began approaching the TSAB headquarters, Alicia was simply awestruck by this massive space station – probably as much as Harry himself was a few years back. Then, he realized that it indeed was her first time seeing the headquarters: she had 'died' almost five years before its construction began.

The group experienced some problems at the customs, seeing as according to the official documents Alicia Testarossa was dead for all but thirty years now. Lindy's authority of a rear admiral, however, was enough to resolve this problem – at least for now – and the group was allowed to proceed. Wasting no time, they headed for the hospital. And since it wasn't that far away from the docks, it took Harry and co maybe seven minutes of brisk walk to get there.

"So, how are we going to do it?" Lindy asked as they entered the hospital's lobby.

"Well, Alicia's physical is going to take a while." Reinforced said. "I suppose, the doctors might need my input on the nature of the curse she'd been afflicted with."

"And, meanwhile, we can pay Nanoha-chan a visit." Hayate added cheerfully. The younger blonde, however, didn't agree with that plan:

"I should go with nee-chan." Fate said. "And, I'm sure, it'd better if we visit Nanoha-chan all together."

"Uhm..." The little Queen of the Night Sky hummed as she tried to come up with an alternative. "Perhaps, we can drop by the cafeteria and wait for you there?" She asked next.

"Sounds like a plan." Fate agreed.

"If you don't mind." Harry interjected, addressing to Hayate. "I'd like to go visit Megane-sensei in the meantime. I'm sure, Lu-chan would like to see her mama as well." He said, while nodding towards the lavender-haired girl he was carrying in his arms.

"Mama? We see mama?" Lutecia asked.

"Yes, we will go see your mama. And we will make sure she gets well soon." The green-eyed special investigator replied.

"Sure." The brunette replied. "We'll be waiting for you all at the cafeteria." She added as she and Yuki-chan broke off the group. Lindy-san was about to add something, when her device signaled an incoming message. Opening a holographic display, she scanned it with her eyes.

"Figures." She said with a sigh. "Not an hour back, and they are already trying to bury me under a mountain of paperwork." Shaking her head she continued: "Well, duty call... Stay safe, kids." And with those words she turned around and hurried out of the hospital.

"Well then, we'll meet you in cafeteria." Harry said. Fate-chan replied him with a nod and what was left of their original group split into two: the Testarossa sisters, Reinforce and Arf headed for the second floor for Alicia's physical, while Harry, Lutecia and Hedwig were catching an elevator ride to the fifth floor wards where Megane-sensei was at. Since she hasn't woken up yet, the green-eyed teen decided against getting her any big 'get-well' presents right now; he still bought a small bouquet of neutral flowers for her.

* * *

Since he had been there before, finding Mrs. Alpine's ward wasn't a problem for the young Potter. And his lavender-haired mentor was indeed there, still kept in a healing coma by the doctors. At least her wounds didn't look as bad today as did a little over a month back...

"Mama?" Lutecia quipped. Harry nodded.

"Yeah, this is your mama. She's very hurt right now, but we will make her get better soon, will we?" He replied, while covertly scanning the room for any hidden cameras or anything else that might record him adding the phoenix tears to Megane's IV – being caught would force him into answering some questions he'd rather not.

"Yea." Lu-chan agreed. "Let's make mama get better." Giving her a smile, Harry checked the results of his earlier scan... And it looked like Lady Luck was on his side today: the room they were in didn't actually have any hidden cameras or anything else that like that. In other words, nothing stood between him and giving Megane the dose of phoenix tears he had procured for her.

"Let's." The green-eyed teen agreed as he sat little Lutecia into a chair next to Megane's bed. He then moved her closer to the bed so that she could hold her mother's hand while he was... busy. Once he was sure that nothing would happen to Lu-chan while his attention was away, Harry took a vial of phoenix tears and a fresh syringe out of his bag. Carefully filling the syringe up, he walked up to a stanchion and picked his target: a plastic bag with some nutrient mixture inside that was used to keep his lavender-haired sensei nourished.

Striking a small hole through the side of the bag near its top, the green-eyed Potter quickly ejected the phoenix tears inside. Withdrawing the syringe, he then sealed the puncture with a small application of his magic. That done, Harry inspected his 'handiwork'... While he couldn't say that the signs of his little 'intervention' were completely unnoticeable, he was positive that unless one was looking specifically for these signs, they'll be overlooked... Satisfied, he threw the empty vial and the used syringe into his bag – he'll dispose them later – and returned to Lu-chan's side.

The two of them – as well as Hedwig, who seemed to have faded out of focus for a bit now – stayed in Megane-san's ward for awhile longer. During this time, for a reason he couldn't quite understand, the young investigator actually recounted the recent events of his and Lu-chan's lives to his sensei... At least, he couldn't deny that letting it all out made him feel better...

Eventually, though, their time ran out and the trio had to bid Mrs. Alpine farewell. And as they left the ward and headed for the hospital's cafeteria to meet up with the rest of their group, Harry wondered whether Alicia's physical went well too.

* * *

"How's she, doctor?" Fate asked once Alicia's physical was over.

"Well, I can detect a few leftovers of what I presume is the curse you've been talking about." The doctor began. "But those are inactive and are unable to influence her in any way..." After making a short pause, he continued: "As for her physical health... Well, your sister has the most extreme case of mana poisoning I've seen in my career, and while the damage from the last couple of months has been mostly healed – through the means I don't understand – the older injuries are still there." Well, Fate thought, those phoenix tears weren't as effective as she and Harry had hoped, but at least they did Alicia some good.

"Can something be done about those?" She asked the physician.

"I'm afraid, no." He replied. "Furthermore, those injuries already took a hefty toll on her health. At this point, she has thirty, maybe thirty five years left. If she doesn't actively uses her magic, that is." And if she does, Fate continued in her head, even less than that...

"I see..." The blond enforcer trainee replied solemnly after a long, uneasy silence. "Does Alicia-chan know about this already?" The doctor shook his head.

"Not yet." He said. "I believe that it would be for the best if you and her friends are there to support your sister when I break the news to her." The young mistress of golden lightning nodded: that made sense. Still, she thought, such information shouldn't be kept in a secret from the person it pertains to. That said, she herself was quite distressed right now; could she really comfort and support Alicia-nee-chan in this dark hour?

"Let's get over with it." Fate said after a long silence, her voice empty and nigh lifeless. Nodding, the doctor invited her into his office where Alicia was waiting for them...

* * *

"How did it go, Harry-kun?" Hayate asked as the said teen and 'his girls' joined her and Yuki-chan at their table in the hospital's cafeteria.

"Actually, pretty well..." He began, only to get interrupted by little Lu-chan eagerly narrating her own version of events to the young and pretty Queen of the Night Sky:

"Papa will make mama get better soon!" Giving the lavender-haired girl a smile, Hayate turned her attention back to Harry, who just shrugged.

"Yeah, pretty much that." He said. "Though, unlike how it was with Alicia, the tears will be fed to her over several days, thus their effect also won't be instantaneous. Still, I think, it won't be more than a couple of weeks before Megane-sensei recuperates."

"I see." Hayate replied. "And you are going to do the same thing for Nanoha-chan, right?" The young Potter nodded in response.

"Yeah." He confirmed. Then, after a brief moment of silence, he continued: "Speaking of which, Alicia-chan's physical isn't over yet, is it?" The mistress of the Tome of the Night Sky shook her head.

"No, they haven't dropped by here yet." She said. Though, a few moments later she had to correct herself: "Speak of the devil..." Turning to look at the cafeteria's entrance, Harry saw that Fate-chan's group indeed had just arrived. And, well... They didn't look very happy; in fact, Fate appeared to be on the verge of tears, Alicia too was quite gloomy and even Reinforce had a noticeable dark aura of defeat clouding around her.

"_What happened?_" Harry asked his silver-haired lover telepathically.

"_Turns out, we weren't as successful in saving Alicia-san as we've believed._" The Lady of the Blessed Wind replied. And as Harry silently asked for some elaboration, she provided him with it: "_Her older injuries, the ones from the reactor incident, are just too severe. Alicia-san has about three decades left. If she lays off her magic._"

"_I see..._" Was all that the green-eyed teen could say. He couldn't say that he had any real ties to the older blonde. Sure, he helped break her curse and all that, but... Alicia hasn't really wormed her way into his heart. Yet. Still, it was always sad to know that someone getting the short end of the stick from Life, especially when they've done absolutely nothing to warrant such a misfortune. He could only imagine what Fate-chan was going through right now... "Alright." He broke the silence. "Now that we're all here, let's go pay Nanoha-chan a visit." He offered. Then, after a moment of thought, he asked: "Vita-chan should be there too, right?"

"Yes, she's in Nanoha-chan's ward now." Reinforce, who could sense her knight's location, confirmed.

"Let's go!" Hayate pushed enthusiastically, probably trying to distract the Testarossa sisters from their current grief. And it actually seemed to work too, as Fate-chan certainly livened up at the thought of visiting her best friend. Alicia, meanwhile, was intrigued by the person her sister was so smitten with. Thus, the group of nine departed from the cafeteria and began their journey to the patients' wards... Well, they needed to make a stop at one of the shops selling various 'get-well' presents first...

* * *

Unfortunately, they've lucked out and picked a bad hour to visit Nanoha-chan as the friendly brunette was soundly asleep at the moment. Vita, her self-appointed guard, though, was here and wide awake...

"So, how's Nanoha-chan doing?" Harry asked the Knight of the Hammer once the greetings have been exchanged. Truth to be said, he was kinda surprised by how little of a reaction the miniature redhead showed upon seeing two Testarossa sisters side by side for the first time; he suspected that Reinforce had explained her the situation via telepathy... Or maybe Vita just drew her own (correct) conclusions based on the stories Fate-chan had shared with her and the other Wolkenritter following the 'Book of Darkness' incident.

"She wakes up alright now, but... with all those painkillers and other medicines they are cramming her with, she's never really lucid." The red-haired mini-knight replied. "Still." She continued. "The doctors say that her body is healing nicely and they expect a full recovery in a few months."

"_Originally, they feared that her wounds would leave her confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life._" Reinforce informed Alicia. Telepathically, as her mistress still had nightmares about being a helpless little girl she used to be before and during the 'Book of Darkness' incident.

"...Her Linker Core also shows signs of getting better." Vita continued meanwhile. "It won't be a full recovery, they say, but Nanoha-chan will lose only a small portion of her original power... She'll likely still become a solid S-rank by the time she out of her teens."

"That's nice to hear." Fate said as she finished arranging the flowers in the vase that was sitting on the table next to head of Nanoha-chan's bed. A moment later, she continued: "Too bad, it doesn't look like they'll be sending her home anytime soon." Indeed, just like Vita had said, it will be at least a couple of months before the brunette's wounds finished healing naturally. And after that she'll probably have to go through a lengthy physical therapy as well. "Thankfully, we can speed her recovery up a bit." Fate said just as Harry finished scanning the ward for observation devices and, having detected none, pulled the final vial of phoenix tears out of his bag.

"What's that?" The miniature Knight of the Hammer asked, glaring at the vial with pure unconcealed suspicion. It actually caught Harry by surprise, just how protective of Nanoha-chan Vita has become.

"This is a very strong restorative agent from my home world." The green-eyed investigator replied as he began filling a syringe with the tears. "It is not perfect, as we've learned, but it should greatly accelerate the rate at which Nanoha-chan's wounds heal." Vita continued glaring, but at least it wasn't like she was trying to erase the tears from the existence with her glare alone anymore.

"I'm giving it to Nanoha-chan?" He asked next, unnerved by the redhead's piercing look.

"Do no harm." The Knight of the Hammer grumbled. Nodding, Harry walked up to the stanchion at the head of Nanoha's bed and injected the tears into one of the plastic containers hanging from it. He then quickly sealed the puncture with a small application of his magic, leaving no obvious signs that he had actually done anything at all here. "How soon the results will show up?" Vita asked when he was done.

"Well,.." The young Potter replied. "It will be a few days before the entire dose is given to her, so..." He trailed off. Truth to be said, he had no good idea on how exactly the phoenix tears given in tiny doses over a prolonged period of time would affect someone. Yet, his answer still seemed to satisfy the red-haired member of the Wolkenritter.

"Say, Vita-chan, do you think Nanoha-chan will wake up soon?" Hayate asked next. The miniature knight shook her head in response.

"I doubt it." She replied. "She last fell asleep about three hours ago, so she'll likely sleep till late in the night." And it was only late afternoon by the headquarters' time...

"Mou..." The little Queen of the Night Sky pouted. She really wanted to catch up with her friend. "Oh well, tell her that we've dropped by, okay, Vita-chan?"

"Of course, mistress." The redhead confirmed with a nod.

"And how are you doing, Vita-chan?" Hayate-chan asked next.

* * *

That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	36. Princess Alicia

The thirty sixth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
**god of all**, **davycrockett100**, **Jose19**, **roughstar333, vampireharry the 2**, **Ranmaleopard**, **ultima-owner**, **Penny is wise**, **PhosphorusLucina**, **jgkitarel**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**Paxloria**, do note that everyone but Reinforce (who's technically immortal) aren't even out of their teens yet. And even if they are fighters for the Bureau, for the most of them the death isn't something waiting just behind the corner. Thus, knowing that Alicia's days are numbered also painfully reminds them about their own mortality. Still, I understand what irks you about that scene.  
**Impstar**, no promises.  
**ShugoYuuki123**, Nanoha is now quite guaranteed to make more or less full recovery. Though it will still be some time before she's allowed to return to active duty. Alicia... Well... She might be able to find her happiness.  
**Bonestar**, thank you for your kind words.  
**Guest**, while it wasn't stated directly in the story (but you can view circles' images through my profile), Harry's magic is NOT Al-Hazardian. There are no pure Al-Hazardian mages in this story (yet), but Alicia is an Al-Hazardian/Mid-Clidan hybrid now. As for writing a small arc about Harry's magic... That might work, but I have no ideas what to write in it yet.

*** AN**: Damn... It has been what, three months since chapter 35... And I can't even make a legitimate excuse for taking so long to write this chapter beyond not having even a hint of inspiration. And I still have no idea where to take this story next... Thus, I'm placing it on a hiatus. Hopefully, it won't last forever...

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells**"  
「_Devices speaking_」  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XXXVI: ****Princess Alicia  
**

A week passed since Harry and co returned to Mid-Childa, but the adventure they've gotten into during their 'eventful' vacation off-world wasn't quite over yet. While the curse Alicia had been subjected to was broken, everyone agreed that its inactive fragments that remained inside her should be removed as well. And the sooner the better. Thus, Reinforce was currently collaborating with the Bureau's Magitek Research Department in hopes of finding a way to remove those last bits of the curse from Alicia.

The said blonde, meanwhile, was getting used to living again. And, once she became fully accustomed to her now-teenaged body, she began spending her days getting to know people around her. Of course, most of the tie she was hanging around her sister, but had also dropped by the Yagami-Potter household several times as well: she wanted to be friends with everyone who had played part in saving her. That said, Alicia definitely was showing more interest towards Harry than she did towards anyone else, even Reinforce and Hedwig.

And the young man in question wasn't oblivious to this. He, however, had other and more important things to worry about right now. First and foremost, with Hayate-chan once again attending her classes at the military academy, he was the one babysitting little Lutecia most of the time. Then, he also had to show up at his work place at the Investigator Department's archives once in a while... And when he wasn't otherwise occupied, Harry tried his best to help Reinforce out with her curse-breaking task. Yet, even with his help, the Al-Hazardian magic was proving to be quite difficult to deal with.

Finally, he was also worrying about Megane-sensei – the hospital was yet to inform him that she was brought out of her healing coma at last. Hopefully, though, the doctors were just being cautious and didn't want to wake her up before they were sure there would be no unexpected complications... At least, Vita-chan's reports on how the phoenix tears were miraculously improving Nanoha-chan's condition solaced him a little.

So, yes, while the young Potter did notice that Alicia seemed to gravitate towards him whenever she and Fate-chan stopped by his home, he didn't pay it much mind at the moment. After all, it wasn't like this caused him or anyone else any real problems...

* * *

Another couple of days passed, and finally some good news came. For one, the eggheads at the Magitek Research Department decided that they had enough data on the curse to try and develop a procedure for removing its remaining fragments from Alicia. Of course, it would still take them some time to get all of the necessary preparations done, but it was a start...

And later on the very same day Harry received a message from the TSAB HQ hospital telling him that Mrs. Alpine has finally woken up. That certainly raised the green-eyed investigator's spirit, even if the doctors were asking him to wait a little before paying his mentor a visit. Something about her needing a bit of time before she felt quite herself after her near-death experience.

Of course, the green-eyed teen would rather visit her as soon as possible, but perhaps this actually was a blessing in disguise. This way, he could bring Lutecia along without a problem and, gods know, that little ball of sunshine really missed her mother. After all, real loving family was something he could never replace, no matter how much he tried...

**~/ *** \~**

"Good morning, sensei." Harry greeted as he stepped into Megane's ward at the TSAB HQ hospital. And even though it was clear to him that the phoenix tears had improved her condition greatly over the past days, it looked like the lavender-haired summoner still had a considerably-long road to recovery ahead of her.

"Mama!" Lutecia, who rode in Harry's arms, cried out happily as she tried to reach for her mama with all of the energy and power of an eager child. He held her down for the moment, though.

"Lu-chan!" He chastised her softly. "Didn't I tell you that your mama is still healing and you should take care not to hurt her?" He asked.

"Yes, papa." The girl replied, some of her earlier enthusiasm disappearing from her voice. Still, once Harry let her down, she moved to her mother's side as fast as a two-years-old could. Meanwhile, Megane couldn't help but raise her eyebrow at the way her daughter addressed the green-eyed teen.

"Papa?" She asked while caressing her little princess who was snuggling against her side.

"Uhm, well..." Harry doddered, embarrassed by the question. "She just randomly started calling me this after a couple of months." After making a short pause, he added: "And certain someone decided that she should follow the example." He said, while playfully glaring at Hedwig, who was perched on his shoulder.

"I have absolutely no idea, what you are talking about, _papa_." The miniature girl retorted, while putting her tongue out at her lord. Megane let out a small giggle over that exchange.

"Either way." She spoke. "Thank you for taking care of my girl, Harry-kun." As the young Potter gracefully accepted her gratitude, the lavender-haired knight continued: "Speaking of which... What happened to Pierre? Or Quint-chan? Or..."

"I'm sorry." Was all that Harry could say in response to her question.

"I see..." Megane said with a deep resigned sigh, her eyes suddenly full of tears. "I kind of knew... that something was up... when the nurses didn't say... they ever visited me... But..." She sobbed. "But to have my guesses confirmed... It hurts... right here." She said, placing her hand over her heart. And as Harry was about to say something, she continued, her voice gaining some of its usual strength back: "Don't worry,.. I'll manage somehow and carry on." This was followed by a long and uneasy silence. Eventually, Megane decided to break it: "So, Harry-kun, what's going on in the big world these days?" She inquired.

"Well..." Harry began while thinking about which of his recent adventures he should narrate to his sensei. "How about I tell you a fascinating story of two sisters getting reunited?" He asked finally.

"Do I know either of them?" The pretty summoner asked back.

"I'm pretty sure you know Fate-chan." The green-eyed teen replied. A moment later he corrected himself: "I mean, Ms. Fate Testarossa, of course." His mentor raised her eyebrow.

"Isn't she a daughter of Precia Testarossa?" Harry nodded. "Hm... Wasn't that woman's ...uh, original daughter dead for nearly quarter of century?" Megane asked, confused. Indeed, until she appeared right before him and his friends on the non-administered world #97, the young Potter and everyone else believed Alicia to be dead for years.

"Turns out, not quite." He replied.

"Oh my." The lavender-haired knight said then. "This gotta be quite a story then."

"It is." Harry confirmed. And after a moment of silence, he began recounting those events – well, an edited and whitewashed version of them at any rate – to his mentor...

**~/ *** \~**

It came as quite a surprise to everyone that the staff of the Magitek Research Department managed to piece together a method for removing the curse's fragments from Alicia in just two weeks. If this didn't make it clear how ingenious and capable they were, then, perhaps, nothing will. Still, Harry was sure that much of the credit for this accomplishment should be given to Reinforce: after all, it was her who provided the research officers with the data they needed to make this possible.

Unfortunately, it was entirely up to the department's administration to decide when the actual curse removal will be taking place. And, of course, they somehow managed to pick what felt like the worst day and time possible...

To begin with, Fate-chan had an appointment with her mentors at the Enforcer headquarters early in that morning – probably something to do with her prolonged academic leave – and thus she couldn't be there for her sister during the procedure. Hell, she couldn't even take her there!

Meanwhile, Harry and Reinforce were tied up by their respective divisions' businesses from mid-morning onwards. Thus, while they could escort Alicia to the Magitek Research Department, they most likely would be unable to see her back home afterwards. Of course, that wouldn't be much of a problem if everything passed over nicely but... Who knows what state the poor girl would end up in should something expected happen during the curse removal?

Alicia herself, though, appeared to believe into research officers and trusted them to make sure she suffered no ill effects from the procedure. And, while she certainly was rather upset that her dear sister couldn't accompany her that day, she didn't let it get to her and saw this as a chance to get a little closer to her new friends instead. Well, just her prince charming, seeing as he was only one escorting her; he let his silver-haired lady go about her own business...

* * *

Several hours later, Harry was sitting in his office at the Investigator Department Archives and trying to turn the stocktaking paperwork he had to fill in into ashes with his glare alone. So far, his morning chat with Alicia has been the highlight of the day and, for whatever reason, his gut feeling was telling him that dealing with these accursed forms wasn't the last of his troubles for the day.

Unfortunately, this feeling was proven to be right when worried Fate-chan called him, saying that she couldn't find her sister anywhere nor could she reach her through her device. Something must have happened to Alicia! And since he was currently bogged down by the bureaucracy, Harry couldn't even help her in person... That, however, didn't mean he couldn't do anything at all to help her: he still had a few friends in the Magitek Research Department who could lend Fate-chan a hand in finding her suddenly-missing sister.

"Sorry to bother you, Kyoko-sensei." The green-eyed teen said as he rang up his one-time mentor and the woman who helped him adjust to the life here, on Mid-Childa. "But I need you help."

"Something's happened, Harry?" She asked in response.

"I'm sure, you've probably heard about the curse-breaking procedure taking place today?" He began from afar, trying to gauge just how much she knew about this all.

"The one for young Ms. Alicia Testarossa? Yeah, what about it?" Kyoko asked in return.

"It seems that she went missing sometime during or after it." Harry said. "Her sister says that she can't find here anywhere and that she doesn't answer any calls to her device." This was followed by a rather lengthy pause, before the device meister spoke:

"Well... There isn't really all that much I can do to help, but... I'll look for her." She said. "Can you give me their numbers so that I can try reaching them?" The green-eyed teen nodded.

"Of course; sending you the data." He said. "And, thank you, sensei. I owe you one." After making a short pause, he continued: "If the situation isn't resolved by then, I'll join the searches in maybe half an hour. Still have a ton of damn stocktaking papers to fill in..." He added, while sending a death glare at the aforementioned spawns of hell lying on his worktable.

* * *

Of course, it took Harry a little more than half an hour to finally deal with the goddamned paperwork, but that changed nothing as Alicia still wasn't found yet. Her device, however, was: it was lying abandoned in the very laboratory where the curse-removal procedure was supposed to take place.

Furthermore, with some help from the department's security, Kyoko-sensei managed to determine that Ms. Testarossa wasn't inside the tower anymore. Yet, there also were no records of her leaving via any of the public entrances. And since she knew better than to drop off the map in case something bad enough to make her flee via magic happened, that possibility could be discounted as well...

That, unfortunately, left a kidnapping as the next most reasonable explanation for Alicia's sudden disappearance. Which meant that the things got really serious now and the law enforcement should be called immediately. And while they were waiting for the police to arrive, Harry and Fate, now acting in their official capacity of Bureau-certified investigators, continued looking for any clues that could shed some light on what had happened there and, hopefully, would let them find Alicia.

Understandably, though, sitting here in the laboratory and trying to divine the perpetrator of the crime and his motives was not very helpful in locating and freeing the missing young lady. Thus, the young Potter decided that the search for Alicia should be conducted simultaneously as well. And who could be better suited for such task than the most powerful mage in existence?

Even with all those limiters on, Reinforce still had enough power to cover hundreds if not thousands of square miles with **Wide Area Search** or some other similar spell. Alicia herself also wasn't exactly hard to find this way, despite being only slightly above average in terms of magical power: it was the uniqueness of her magic that made her stand out. Indeed, there was high chance that she was the first Al-Hazardian mage in several millenniums!

And, luckily for the young Potter, his silver-haired lady was both willing and able to help him out with this one.

* * *

The next half an hour was a rather arduous for those at the Magitek Research Department. Even with the help of the police almost no useful evidence was found. They also had no prominent suspects at the moment as pretty much everyone had some sort of an alibi. And, as the result, Harry and co weren't getting any closer to finding and rescuing Alicia...

Thankfully, the day was saved when Reinforce got on for the contact and announced that she managed to locate the missing Ms. Testarossa: her kidnappers have taken her to one of the satellite towns some twenty miles away from Cranagan.

Not wasting any more time, Harry, Fate and a couple of police officers teleported away using the coordinates the Lady of the Blessed Wind has provided them with. And a few moments later they found themselves standing in a small driveway on the edge of the town, right in front of a normal-at-the-first-glance house. Reinforce was there as well, and she looked ready for battle.

"Is Alicia-nee-chan here?" Fate asked.

"Yes." The silver-haired lady confirmed with a nod. "She's being held in a shed behind this house." After a moment of silence, she continued: "There is a barrier around the property. It is a fairly quite weak one, but whether we dismantle it or breach it, the kidnapper will know we are here the moment it goes down. Whatever your plan is, you'll have to move fast."

"Understood." Harry said, before adding telepathically: "_Thank you, Rein. We owe you._" After a few moments, he spoke aloud again, addressing everyone: "Any ideas on how we should proceed?"

"Is there anyone else, besides my sister and the bastard who dared to kidnap her here?" Fate-chan asked. Reinforce shook her head.

"If there is anyone else, I can't detect them." She said. And given that it was all but impossible to hide from her senses when she was actively looking for something, everyone concluded that the silver-haired beauty was right, and their only opposition here would be Alicia's abductor.

"Then, perhaps, we should opt for a frontal assault." The blond enforcer-in-training said after a second or two of thinking. "It will give our opponent the least time to muster his defense."

"Agreed." One of the policemen said once he finished communicating with his superiors. "That seems like our best bet in this situation."

"Alright then." Harry spoke as he activated his flight spell and rose a couple of feet into the air. Next to him, Fate-chan did the same. "Do the honors, Reinforce?" He 'asked'. The silver-haired beauty nodded and raised her hand, preparing to overload the barrier around the property.

"On three." The Lady of the Blessed Wind said as a Belkan triangle blossomed to life under her feet. "One... Two... Three!.." She counted, before releasing a powerful magical pulse that shredded the barrier's spell matrix, causing the whole thing to collapse a moment later.

And as soon as that happened, the two youths darted inside, covering the distance to the shed where Alicia was held in a matter of seconds. And some flimsy wooden door wasn't going to stop them: in a blink of an eye Fate cut it into pieces with a few well-placed slashes of her scythe... With the door gone, the two of them advanced into the shed.

They weren't quite ready for what they found inside: a self-built laboratory a lot like those found in the old movies about mad scientists. And the centerpiece of that whole ensemble was a large scanner, to which unconscious but otherwise unharmed Alicia was affixed spreadeagled.

"Surrender peacefully, and you will be..." The enforcer-in-training began the standard speech, was quickly interrupted by her sister's captor – whom Harry finally recognized as one of the research officers who worked on the curse-removal procedure.

"No! No! No! I'm not letting you take her away!" The man cried out as he positioned himself between the Testarossa sisters. "This girl is the key to understanding the secrets of Al-Hazard! Just t-think of all the advancement we can make if we study her! W-Why does no one understand this?! Why-..." His further rant was interrupted by Bardiche's blade appearing a mere inch away from his throat.

"I strongly suggest you rethink your intentions towards my sister." Fate hissed at him, her voice laced with barely-controlled anger.

"B-But the scientific benefits..." He tried to protest hysterically.

"Are off the table." The blonde cut him short. The man definitely didn't agree with that. To the point where he tried to assert his point of view with force. Understandably, that didn't work; Fate had him knocked unconscious before he was able to even raise his fist. "Take him away." She said then, addressing to the police officers, who had finally reached the shed.

As the defeated kidnapper was dragged away, the enforcer-in-training turned her attention to Alicia. At a glance it didn't look like anything bad had been done to her sister, but she wouldn't be able to rest until she was completely sure. Reinforce was quick to notice that and was already scanning the unconscious girl for any recent injuries... And after some twenty seconds, she was ready to set Fate-chan's worries at rest:

"Your sister appears to be fine." She said. "Also, her sleep appears to be magically-induced and not caused by soporifics." The younger Testarossa girl nodded as she let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness!" She breathed out. After a few moments, she spoke again: "Alright! Let's get nee-chan out of here!" She then dithered a bit. "Ah... Could you lift the sleeping spell, please?" She asked the avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky pleadingly. The silver-haired beauty simply nodded in response and then used her powers to undo that piece of magic. And while she did that, Fate-chan dealt with binding spells that kept Alicia affixed on the examination table.

With no magic forcing her to remain unconscious, it took Alicia no more than a minute to wake up. And as she did, she quickly noticed that she no longer was inside the Bureau's central offices. She was also quite sure that the shed she was in didn't belong to some hospital either. So, something must have happened, she concluded – ans that something was not of a nice kind... At least, the presence of her dear sister and her friends meant that whatever had happened to her was now over and she safe.

And so, as soon as the last of her drowsiness went away, Alicia went to thank her saviors. She started by giving her sis a big warm hug while whispering words of gratitude to her. Next, she gave Reinforce and gave a hug as well. For her Prince Charming, though, she had something else in mind... Approaching Harry, who was expecting a hug, she surprised him – and everyone else – by giving him a long and quite adult kiss instead.

"Ahem!" Fate-chan coughed into her fist as she tried to get her sister's attention. And while that worked, it looked like Alicia didn't quite get the reason why she got drawn out.

"Mhm?.." She 'asked'. "You want one too, sis?" Not even letting her sister to thrust in a word, she continued: "I know you're beautiful and all – you are me, after all – but,.. Well... I'm not really into girls." Making a short pause, she then added playfully: "But, if you insist, I'm sure we can give Harry-kun a show."

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That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	37. Library of Ashare

It's alive. **IT'S ALIVE**!

Ahem. As you can probably surmise from the above statement, this story is not dead (yet), and, in fact, here's the thirty seventh chapter! And while I now have a few ideas what to write about next, I'm not sure I can guarantee updates at any sort of regular schedule. So, I'm going to keep the on-hiatus warning in the summary for the time being...

*** Review Response**:  
**Nuthenry2**, thank you for the idea, but I'd like to keep this one as just HP and MGLN crossover.  
**Jostanos**, **FateBurn**, **polarpwnage**, **davycrockett100**, **vampireharry the 2**, **Reishin Amara**, **ultima-owner**, **roughstar333**, **yukicrewger2**, **Kuro-tan**, **Thermidor606**, **Ashzaroth**, **JohannaGracia**, **Partsu**, **shadowchaos5150**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
**jgkitarel**, maybe?  
**Locothehood**, **Ranmaleopard**, thank you. Hopefully, it won't be abandoning me like that anymore...  
**Jose19**, Alicia is just... being Alicia.  
**Impstar**, no, it's indeed not the harem time. Yet. I don't know.

*** AN**: Great thanks to **Remilia - The Scarlet Moon**, **greysongarr** and **Skelekitty** for helping me gain the inspiration back and for polishing this chapter.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. The same goes for the other books, anime &amp; manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
"_telepathy_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**spells**"  
「_Devices speaking_」  
_written messages_

* * *

**Bureau Agent Potter**  
**chapter XXXVII: ****Library of Ashare**

Pretty much as soon as they were back to the privacy of the Harlaown apartment, Fate-chan had one very serious talk with her sister. Namely, that Harry was in a relationship and, therefore, off limits. It wasn't truly something that Alicia didn't know already, but now Fate-chan finally made her accept this and stop trying to seduce the green-eyed mage. Well, not entirely. While the revived beauty did promise to lay off teasing her 'prince', she also made it quite clear that she wasn't giving up on him just yet.

And while she was dreaming of a future – the one where she and Harry were together, of course – Alicia realized that there were other decisions and plans that needed to be made. Like her future occupation, for example. After all, much like her sister, she wasn't someone who'd be satisfied with being just a housewife. And she really wanted to be helpful to her sister and her friends,..

Of course, her inability to actively use her magic did restrict her from some of the more interesting jobs, but it certainly didn't make her dream of being there for the people she loved unattainable. Indeed, between the bits knowledge gifted to her by her late mother and her own talent of understanding magic and magitech, she could fare reasonably well as a researcher or an engineer. Or, perhaps, as a Device Meister. Yes, becoming one sounded like a really good idea to Alicia. And so she made her decision: she'll become a Device Meister and she'll give her absolute best to her sister and her friends!

* * *

Meanwhile, Harry was quite curious about the way Reinforce reacted towards the certain blond beauty's playful advances on him: even though he knew that despite her fearsome reputation his lover actually was a kind and gentle soul, he was still surprised by how mild her reaction towards Alicia's flirting was. And sensing that something major was the cause of this passiveness, the green-eyed mage tried to get the truth out of his silver-haired lady. As inconspicuously as possible, of course.

Unfortunately for him, Reinforce was quite evasive whenever he tried to bring this topic up in their conversation. Eventually, though, he got his lover to confide in him: as it turned out, there indeed was a reason why she didn't act territorial when Alicia was making her advances on him. Namely, as much as she would've liked to be the one and only for him, the silver-haired beauty knew that due to her nature of a magical construct, there were some things she simply couldn't bless him with. And that was why she didn't protest much when Alicia was making her attempts to woo him... Of course, she'd rather share her man with her Master, but... Hayate-chan so far was showing way more interest in the fair sex than she did in boys, so...

Understandably, Harry was deeply moved by this confession and wasted no time in alleviating Rein's fears, reassuring her that he didn't love her any less just because she was what she was... And by the time he was done making her forget all about those fears, the Lady of the Blessed Wind was practically glowing from the knowledge that his love for her was very real and quite strong.

**~/ *** \~**

About two weeks after the Alicia's failed abduction, Nanoha was finally discharged from the hospital. Her physical wounds were healed and some faint scarring on her tummy was but the only reminder of a nearly-fatal wound a gadget drone had inflicted on her. Her Linker Core, though, still needed more time to finish healing. And to make sure that she wouldn't hurt herself by trying to use her magic before it was okay to do so, her device, the Raising Heart, was temporarily taken away from her.

Surprisingly enough, Nanoha wasn't too upset by this. By her own admission, she had learned her lesson about overdoing her training and will never make such a mistake ever again. In fact, she decided that once the doctors finally give her a clean bill of health, she'll pursue a career of a TSAB combat instructor and will do her best to stop others from making the same mistake that nearly cost her life.

And now that her dearest friend was finally released from the hospital, Fate-chan was finally able to concentrate on her Enforcer training properly. Even more than just that, with nothing weighting her down anymore, the blond mage was actually preparing for the final tests that would take place in a month. And, once she passed them, finally becoming a full-fledged member of the Enforcer Division.

* * *

Mrs. Alpine, meanwhile, wasn't getting discharged from the hospital just yet: the doctors wanted to keep her under close observation for a bit longer; probably due to how damaged her Linker Core still was. But that didn't stop the lavender-haired knight from making her own plans for the future. And those plans included finding a new home for her family: Megane just knew that she wouldn't be able to live peacefully in her old apartment, the one her dear husband had been murdered in and her daughter had been abducted from.

At the same time, though, she knew that she shouldn't go about it carelessly: over the past few months little Lu-chan has grown really close to Harry and his ladies, and separating them suddenly would end in a disaster. But, that wasn't actually a big problem for Megane as between the monies she already had and whatever she could gain from selling her old apartment, she knew she'll be able to buyout one next door to the Yagami-Potter household. And there might even be enough money left after the deal to do some really nice renovations there...

Aside from that, Mrs. Alpine was also thinking about her future employment. Losing her ability to use magic made it impossible for her to continue as an active-duty investigator. However, that didn't mean she could no longer work within the Bureau: there was quite a number of positions that didn't require one to be capable of casting spells. She could get a position in the public relations offices or in the archives or, hell, become an instructor and teach the recruits about the TSAB history or law! Plus, while she'd rather keep working for the TSAB, there nothing actually preventing her from seeking employment elsewhere, and there was a number of interesting civilian jobs she could take.

Still, none of her plans could be really set into motion until the doctors deemed her ready to leave their care, so the lavender-haired knight could do little more than making sure once and again that these plans were as close to being flawless as was possible.

**~/ *** \~**

Why Alicia was so confident that a Unison Device would know how Devices were manufactured and maintained, Harry wasn't sure, but this time her guess was quite spot on. Reinforce, despite lacking the knowledge on now she herself or even her knights were made, indeed knew a thing or two about the creation of lesser Magical Terminals. It was just one of the great many things she has 'learned' over the centuries of her long life via her Rare Skill, 'Collect and Use'. She was quite willing to share this wealth of knowledge too.

And so Alicia began visiting the Yagami-Potter household almost every day as she learned the basics of Device creation from Reinforce. Harry actually had no idea why she picked Reinforce over some certified Device Meister as her teacher, but this unexpected apprenticeship seemed to work for both of them, so... Anyhow, with her sister spending much of her time there, Fate-chan too started coming whenever she wasn't busy with her Enforcer training, much to Hayate-chan's joy. Especially since Nanoha-chan, who was yet to go back to Earth, often joined them as well.

For awhile things were peacefully-quiet. Then, one day, this routine was shattered to pieces by a sudden call from an old friend:

"Long time no see, Yuuno." Fate-chan greeted him. Indeed, between his job at the Infinite Library and the archaeological expeditions he still frequently participated in, the ferret-boy has kinda fallen out of everyone's lives.

"Hello, Fate-chan, Nanoha-chan, Harry-kun." The blond boy greeted back. "I'm sorry for calling you so suddenly, but I'd like to ask a huge favor from you, Fate-chan." Now, this was interesting. The red-eyed beauty could only wonder what her friend might need her help with. After all, he was probably the smartest person in their little group and he wasn't lacking when it came to the connections within the Bureau. And, despite being downright terrible with shooting spells, he could hold his own in a magical fight quite well.

"What sort of a favor?" She asked. Immediately, two new windows popped into existence. One cycled through a number of photos depicting some ancient but well-preserved ruins that were covered by a strange magical shield, while the other showed whatever data the archaeological team got from scanning that shield. And, well, that data made absolutely no sense. It was like the magic behind it operated on the entirely different principles than what everyone here was familiar with.

"About a month ago, one of the TSAB border patrols discovered an asteroid drifting through the Dimensional Space that gave off some very strong and very unusual magical readings. The preliminary investigation of this asteroid makes us believe that it is a vault of some sort that was created by the Al-Hazardian civilization around five thousand years ago. The magical shield you see, however, prevents us from exploring this place properly." Yuuno explained, giving Fate-chan a good idea, what sort of a favor he was about to ask from her.

"You want to enlist Alicia-nee-chan to help you get past that shield." The Enforcer Trainee observed. Yuuno nodded in response; there really was no reason for him to be equivocative.

"Yes." He confirmed. "We believe that she, as an Al-Hazardian mage, will be able to interface with the spells that protect the vault and deactivate them gracefully." There was quite a long pause, before he added: "We should be able to force our way through that shield regardless, but I'm afraid that doing so will trigger some sort of a defense mechanism that will destroy the priceless artifacts that are stored inside." Fate-chan let out a small sigh.

"Yuuno-kun, we've known each other for years now, and I trust you, really." She said. "It is your colleagues that I have no trust in. I'm sure, you've heard what happened to nee-chan the last time I've entrusted her to someone I didn't know. And I know for sure that you have your duties that won't let you watch Alicia-nee-chan 24/7."

"Watch me why?" The said girl asked as she walked into the room, her lessons in Device making apparently over for the day. "And you must be… ah... Yuuno-kun, right? Nice to meet you." She greeted the young archaeologist. "Fate-chan told me lots of stories about you."

"Hello, Alicia-san." Mr. Scrya greeted her back.

"So…" The revived blonde continued. "What would someone need to watch me over for?" She asked while looking into her sister's eyes. It was not Fate-chan but Yuuno who gave her the answer to his question, however:

"You see, some time ago an untouched vault of Al-Hazardian origin was discovered. This vault, however, protected by a powerful magical shield and I was hoping that you could help us deactivate that shield." He said. "But Fate-chan, quite reasonably, raises a question about your security, should you agree to assist me and my colleagues."

"Mhm…" Alicia breathed out as she studied the images of the ancient magical vault that Yuuno has shared with her sister and her friends. "Is this vault of yours a library?" She asked finally. The young archaeologist shook his head.

"No, not really. But, as far as we were able to see, there is a decent amount of hand-written books stored within this vault, alongside with various other artifacts of that period."

"I'm not letting Alicia-nee-chan go if there are no guarantees of her safety there." Fate cut in. Alas, the other two blondes were too engrossed in discussing the possible contents of the Al-Hazardian vault to really listen to her right now:

"Do you think that there might be something on medicine?" The revived beauty asked. "Al-Hazardian magic has brought me back to life… even if it did so in a rather twisted way; it's not impossible that there might be something that can cure my condition." She said, referring to her mana poisoning and the lingering damage from the curse she had been revived under. And, just because Alicia has accepted that she might never be able to use her magic freely again didn't mean that she wasn't looking for a way to make herself healthy again.

"Well…" Yuuno began. "We don't know for sure what is stored within this vault as the shield prevents us from exploring it, but, based on what we've seen thus far, there is a significant number of books inside. And since the Al-Hazardian civilization was even more reliant on magic than Belkan or our own, books on magic would certainly be plentiful. We can only guess on what kind of spells are described within them, but it would actually be quite surprising if there is absolutely nothing about healing magics in those books."

"If there is a chance, I should take it." Alicia said, apparently already imagining the magic no one has heard in millenniums of curing all of her ailments.

"You aren't going anywhere if there are no guarantees of your absolute safety." Fate inserted assertively. "And, sorry, Yuuno-kun, but you won't be able to guard my nee-chan all the time." The said girl could see where her sister was coming from with this 'decision', but that certainly didn't mean she was happy about being denied a chance at getting the cure to her condition. Similarly, the young archaeologist would rather Alicia helped his expedition…

"But what if someone else comes with me and protects me while out there?" The revived beauty tried. "There will be no problems with this on your end, right, Yuuno-kun?" The said teen immediately replied with a nod.

"No, there won't be any. I should be easy for me to get the permissions for you and anyone that else that will come." He said.

"And who is going to accompany you, nee-chan?" Fate asked. "None of us can take any more days off right now." At least, that was true for those whom she considered to be capable of watching over her sister well.

"Well, since I'm her Lord and commander, I can give Hedwig some extra leave. Gods know, she hates being stuck in the Department's Archives..." Harry spoke up. "And, I'm sure, Hayate-chan can do the same for Yuuki. Together, our little Unison sisters should be more than enough to keep Alicia-chan safe."

"Yeah, papa's saying worthwhile things." The once-owl added, seeing as Fate-chan didn't appear to trust her Lord. "I'm strong and so is my sister." The Enforcer trainee let out an exasperated sigh.

"Fine, if you two can prove it to me that you will be able to keep Alicia-nee-chan safe, I'll let her go."

* * *

As Fate quickly learned, underestimating the Hedwig and Yuuki because of their small stature and 'meager' A-rank in magical power was a very big mistake. Especially when the two Unison Devices were working together. With how they could share their senses, sneaking up on them was all but impossible, and their predictive abilities on top of their small size made them extremely hard to hit with anything short of a massive area attack. Meanwhile, their own spells, while, perhaps, not as powerful and devastating as something their 'mother' could throw around, still hurt quite a bit.

In the end, Fate won that training match, but it wasn't an easy win for her. In fact, she admitted that this was probably the hardest fight she fought since the final battle of the Book of Darkness incident. And so, while she'd rather not let Alicia out of her sight, Fate-chan did as she promised and allowed her sister to go help breaking into the Al-Hazardian vault with Hedwig and Yuuki acting as her guards.

**~/ *** \~**

While rather drawn out and tiring, the flight to the non-administered world #131, Ashare, to which the asteroid with the Al-Hazardian vault has been towed, went without any real troubles. And, once Alicia settled in the quarters aboard the ship the archaeological team was using as their base of operations, Yuuno brought her to the dig site itself.

"Here we are." He said while gesturing towards a small elevated platform cut from some sort of black vitreous rock with a semi-circle of rectangular waist-high columns covered in strange carvings protruding from it. "We believe this to be a control panel of sorts, through which the spells maintaining and protecting this vault can be controlled. Unfortunately, it appears to be designed in such a way that only an Al-Hazardian mage can interact with it."

"I see..." The revived beauty replied. "And you want me to try and use to lower that shield?" She then asked, while nodding towards a glowing orange wall of magic that made it impossible to enter the depths of the ancient vault.

"My team would be most thankful if you could do that." The young archaeologist confirmed.

"Okay." Alicia nodded. "I'll see what I can do, though I should warn you that while I seem to be able to use Al-Hazardian Magic, I can't understand their writings. At all. Those carvings here? They are nothing more than scribbles to me." She said, implying that she was just as likely to screw something up really badly as she was to quietly power down that shield like Yuuno hoped she could do. This confession didn't discourage him in the slightest, however.

"Whatever is written here, it's in a dialect we haven't encountered before; no one here can understand it." Oh well… If the people who spent their entire lives studying the Al-Hazardian civilization were as much in the dark as she was, then Alicia saw no reason not to try her luck with this ancient 'console'.

"Alright, let's do it." She said, before stepping onto the platform and placing her hands onto a random pair of control columns. Letting out a small sigh, Alicia drew upon her Magic and forced it into the ancient device, hoping that everything will go well and she will be able to safely operate it. Her unspoken prayer, apparently, was answered and the Al-Hazardian creation came back to life as soft orange glow slowly spread through the carvings, lighting them up and forming some sort of a user interface.

Distantly, the blonde beauty could hear the awestruck archaeologists whispering among themselves about how none of them ever managed to make this thing work… But she wasn't listening to them and instead concentrated on the magical 'console' in front of her, desperately trying to find anything that might give her a hint on what she had to do to lower that shield. Alas, all she was seeing were completely alien signs that refused to divulge their meanings to her. So she tried to randomly touch some pictogram. Unfortunately, it produced no discernible result, as did another several other attempts with different symbols on the other columns.

"What now?" She called, hoping for some sort advice on what to do next. "I have absolutely no idea how to operate this thing."

"Well…" Yuuno began. "I'm not sure we can really help you there." After all, no one here could understand the dialect used by the creators of the vault. "But, from what we know about the Al-Hazardian civilization, much of their magic could be controlled via user's intent. Perhaps, you should try willing the shield to power off?" He suggested.

"Alright, I will try that." Alicia replied, before returning her attention to the 'console' she was using. Letting out another sigh, she concentrated on powering the shield off while pushing some of her magic into the ancient device. And, while the shield itself remained as strong as it was a minute ago, it made something happen: light which was previously confined to the carvings on the stone columns extended past one of them into the air, forming more of those strange patterns no one here could understand. Deciding that the best way to proceed would be to continue trying to exert her will over the system, Alicia pushed more of her magic into the 'console' while concentrating hard on the thought of powering the shield down.

The light patterns in the air flashed angry red a couple of times, before receding back into the column. Then, a couple of seconds later, the shield began fading out of existence. The happiness everyone experienced at that moment, however, was very short-lived as the instant the shield disappeared completely, everything went to hell as a sudden blast wave tore through entire complex, throwing the people around like ragdolls and destroying priceless artifacts.

"Augh..." The blonde beauty moaned as Hedwig and Yuuki brought her round. "What happened?" She asked, hoping that someone might be able to explain the catastrophe that took place moments ago.

"Apparently, the Al-Hazardians removed all of the air from the vault to make its contents last. So, when the shield was lowered, it was like we set off a vacuum bomb." The battered-looking Yuuno, who was sitting on the ground a dozen meters away, explained.

"I'm so sorry." Alicia said, tears appearing in her eyes. The young archaeologist shook his head.

"Don't be, you couldn't have known." He tried to comfort her. "Neither our spells nor other scans could've penetrated that shield, none of us knew that this would happen." This was followed by quite a bit of uneasy silence, before the revived girl asked fearfully:

"So… H-How much… How much was destroyed in this… this disaster?"

"Most the written books were too frail from their extreme age to survive this, I'm afraid." Yuuno said mournfully: for someone who has dedicated his life to studying the ancient civilizations, the destruction of the priceless artifacts was always a tragedy. "And a significant number of tablets and other artifacts were shattered as well, but we might be able to piece them back together. All in all, I'd say that we still got more things intact than we would've had were there no shield at all."

Alicia gave him a weak smile, though she was still thinking that this was her fault; she was an Al-Hazadrian mage, she was supposed to be able to use their magic and their technology properly, damn it! And now her hopes of getting the cure for her mana poisoning were shattered, just like the innumerable artifacts once contained in this vault were. Life, indeed, was a cruel mistress...

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That's all folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


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